Ukraine could get through the upcoming winter without massive power outages if Russia fails to destroy critical energy infrastructure facilities that survived previous attacks.
Energy Minister German Galushchenko said this at the Business Energy 2024 forum, Ukrinform reports with reference to Forbes.
Regarding the recent UN report, in which the probable duration of power outages this winter is estimated from four to 18 hours per day, the minister noted that the organization was ultimately unable to substantiate such calculations.
“We called their representatives to understand where such calculations came from. It turned out that they have no real arguments,” Galushchenko said.
He added that power outages in winter may be due to emergency repairs, which will not be of a systemic nature.
The head of the Ministry of Energy emphasized that the most reliable tools for protecting energy facilities are air defense systems. Thus, the enemy attack on August 26 showed the insufficient performance of the second-level protection system at energy facilities as they are unable to counter Russian missiles.
By the end of the year, Ukraine will receive equipment for distributed electricity generation with a total capacity of more than 1 GW, but, according to the minister, it will not be possible to connect those capabilities to the grid before year-end.
As reported by Ukrinform, on the night of October 7, a Russian attack drone flew close to a South Ukraine nuclear power plant in Ukraine.
Source: Ukraine has chance to go through winter without blackouts – Energy Minister
