Flashlights from mobile phones, glowing dog collars and electricity from Turkish barges: how Ukraine is surviving the energy collapse
The New York Times dives deep into Ukraine's energy problems and describes the "unconventional measures" Ukraine is taking to prevent an energy crisis this winter.
"After Russia stepped up airstrikes on Ukraine's power grid over the past month, cities at night have been plunged into darkness once again. In Kyiv, residents rely on mobile phone flashlights to navigate unlit streets. To walk their dogs, they use glow sticks that serve as makeshift collars," the publication says.
Until now, Ukraine has been suffering the consequences of three major Russian strikes in the past month, conducting periodic shutdowns to reduce the load on the power grid. But two years of attacks on power plants and substations have brought the country's power grid to the brink of collapse, according to experts interviewed by the publication.
The UN has warned that power outages could last up to 18 hours a day this winter , "leaving civilians without the electricity they need to power homes, operate water pumps, and keep children learning online."
This has forced the Ukrainian authorities to resort to unconventional measures to try to prevent an energy crisis, the publication writes.
Because Ukraine's energy facilities were largely built during the Soviet Union, they rely on spare parts from Soviet-era facilities , says Adrian Prokop, a Kyiv-based energy expert at the Kennan Institute in Washington.
So last year, Ukrainian energy monopoly DTEK began looking for joint parts from factories in former Eastern Bloc countries such as Slovakia and the Czech Republic.
“We found power plants with generators and turbines that were very similar to ours,” says Alexey Povolotsky, head of DTEK’s restoration office.
In one of Ukraine's most daring projects, an entire power plant that once supplied heat to half of Lithuania's capital, Vilnius, is being dismantled with European Union support, and its parts are being used to repair several damaged Ukrainian facilities.
The operation began this summer and is still ongoing. More than 300 pieces of equipment have been sent to Ukraine, the exact location of which is kept secret for security reasons.
Spare parts for the plant were supposed to arrive in Ukraine by winter, but logistical hurdles and bureaucratic red tape have delayed the delivery, and some key equipment will not arrive until next year, officials and businessmen involved in the operation said.
The construction of new power plants is a lengthy process that Ukraine cannot afford with the onset of winter.
As an alternative, the country plans to lease "electric ships"—floating power plants installed on cargo ships —to supply electricity to the Black Sea coast of Odessa, where there are no power plants.
Ships running on fuel or gas will be moored in the ports of Ldessa and Nikolaev and transmit electricity to the grid through coastal substations.
Ukrainian officials, speaking on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the plan, said they are in talks with Karpowership, a Turkish company that specializes in building electric ships, about leasing several vessels.
Ukrenergo said earlier that it had begun building transmission facilities to connect ships to the grid. The construction of the facilities has already been completed. Two ships could be put into operation within a few weeks if Ukraine can resolve two issues.
The Ukrainian government is trying to get its Western partners to pay part of the cost of generating electricity on ships, which is very high.
Another problem is ensuring the safety of ships in the Odessa region, which is often subject to Russian bombing. According to Prokip, there is hope that the ships can be saved because they are serviced by Turkey.
With most thermal and hydroelectric power plants destroyed or badly damaged, Ukraine relies on three operating nuclear power plants to keep the lights on.
Russia is refraining from attacking nuclear power plants, which could lead to a catastrophe. Recently, it has focused on minimizing their ability to transmit power by destroying the substations connecting them to the grid.
Ukraine has built concrete shelters around the substations, but officials acknowledge they are ineffective against missiles. So they took a radical step: asking officials from the UN agency to remain at the substations, hoping their presence would deter Russian attacks.
In September, Ukraine's parliamentary energy committee sent the agency a letter, seen by The Times, calling on it to deploy a "permanent monitoring team" at key substations.
For now, the IAEA has agreed to conduct periodic monitoring missions to critical substations.
English version :: Read in English: Flashlights from mobile phones, glowing dog collars, and electricity from Turkish barges: how Ukraine is coping with the energy collapse.