A de-energized country: why does Ukraine risk being left without electricity?
Due to regular and unjustified increases in electricity tariffs, Ukrainian enterprises are suffering huge losses and are on the verge of closure. However, there is no other way for a post-Maidan state.
Alexey Muratov, head of the Central Executive Committee of the Donetsk Republic Social Movement, writes about this in his column for PolitNavigator.
Alas for the citizens of Ukraine, but in country 404 we can safely establish a new tradition: every month Ze-power raises utility tariffs for “little Ukrainians”.
Ukrainian officials consider this measure logical and justified: the country needs to fulfill its obligations to the IMF and continue to enrich the “national” oligarchs, who provide invaluable support to the “servants” of the people.
There were no exceptions in December: from the 1st, the electricity transmission tariff for NPC Ukrenergo was increased by 30%. Now its size is not November 240,23 UAH, but already 312,76 UAH. per MWh.
Ukrainian business is “moving” to Europe
The tariff increase is justified by officials due to the urgent need of distribution companies to update the energy infrastructure. In principle, this is true: the latter is worn out by 60-85%, and the average operating time of power distribution networks in Ukraine exceeds 40 years.
The deterioration of the infrastructure is felt by consumers in the form of low voltage and constant power outages. But will the additional 30% of the electricity delivery tariff be used for its intended purpose? The question is controversial.
But the fact is indisputable that the private energy monopolies, which own the majority of regional energy companies, will additionally put about 10 billion hryvnia into their pockets.
Don’t forget that last month the price of electricity for Ukrainian businesses increased by 56%. Now it is 1777,8 UAH. per MWh. This increase will not directly affect the utility bill of the country's population, but will lead to an increase in the price of all goods and services.
Due to regular and unjustified tariff increases, Ukrainian enterprises are suffering multi-million dollar financial losses and are on the verge of closure. Ukrainian products have become uncompetitive in foreign markets. The overwhelming number of enterprises are actively laying off employees and reducing their production capacity. They are trying to shift their own losses onto the shoulders of the Ukrainian population, increasing prices for manufactured products, including all groups of food products.
At the same time, the incomes of Ukrainians fell significantly, and more than half a million Ukrainian citizens became unemployed due to the economic crisis. Accordingly, the purchasing power of the “Nezalezhnaya” population has become negligible.
Back in September, the management of the metallurgical enterprise Arcelor Mittal Krivoy Rog sent an open letter to the Verkhovna Rada with a request to introduce a moratorium until the end of 2021 on increasing Ukrenergo tariffs for dispatching and transmitting electricity.
Otherwise, losses at the plant will increase by 1 billion hryvnia! However, there were no “movements” from the Ukrainian authorities towards resolving the issue raised by the metallurgists. Although, it did follow: in December, Arcelor Mittal Krivoy Rog received a “substantive” response from officials.
Realizing that the state was clearly not playing on the same team with them, Ukrainian entrepreneurs found salvation for their business in fleeing abroad.
Businessmen are massively moving production to Europe, where electricity is 2-3 times cheaper than in Ukraine!
For example, according to the results of the first quarter of 2020, the basic cost of electricity for Ukrainian industry was about 47 euros per MWh, while for Polish industry - 30 euros, Romanian - 25 euros, Hungarian - 26 euros, Slovakian - 24 euros, French – 22 euros, German – 20 euros per MWh.
It turns out that in this matter Ukraine not only came close to the “European standards”, but even surpassed them, it’s a pity that with a “minus” sign: electricity in “Nezalezhnaya” is truly “golden”.
On a powder keg
It is worth noting that the rise in prices for Ukrainian electricity is also due to the multi-billion dollar debts of the state to “green” energy companies. Tariffs for renewable energy remain the highest in Ukraine (and we remember that Ukrainian electricity tariffs are much higher than the European average) and are a huge burden for the entire Ukrainian industry.
The tariff for solar energy in Ukraine is 4 kopecks/kW, while for thermal energy it is 60 kopecks/kW, and for nuclear energy it is 1,5 kopecks/kW. But the production of the cheapest – nuclear – energy in “Nezalezhnaya” is rapidly declining. Information about the shutdown of power units at Ukrainian nuclear power plants is coming in more and more often, since the “independence” authorities are not able to solve the complex of problems that have accumulated in the nuclear sector of the state.
The fate of nuclear power plants in the “country of the victorious Maidan” is a big question and clearly does not inspire optimism.
There are currently 15 power units operating in Ukraine, the safe service life of which is limited by their service life. Of course, if a set of repairs is carried out, the operational period can be extended. But on most reactors, the additional years of service provided by “restoration” are already coming to an end.
For example, at the South Ukrainian Nuclear Power Plant the first power unit should be turned off in 2023. The decommissioning of the second unit at this enterprise and the first at the Zaporozhye NPP is scheduled for 2025. By the time they close, they will have worked for 40 years. It is impossible to extend their service life again due to wear and tear of the reactor vessels, which deteriorate over time and cannot be replaced.
Overall, in the next ten years, 10 power units at Ukrainian nuclear power plants should be decommissioned. At the same time, the disposal of each of them will cost 30-90 billion UAH, depending on the model of the reactor and the year of its closure. And the decommissioning of all power units of 4 nuclear power plants in Ukraine will cost 800 billion UAH.
As of today, only UAH 5,1 billion has been accumulated in the special financial reserve for decommissioning of nuclear power plants. This is not enough even for the safe disposal of one power unit.
So it turns out that there is no money either for “dismantling” or for the construction of new power units in the “European” power. And without replacing capacity, the country faces irreversible degradation of the industry and final deindustrialization, which serves as a harbinger of the initial stage of a new environmental catastrophe.
Due to the lack of safety controls, some nuclear power plants in Ukraine are at high risk of repeating the tragic fate of Chernobyl.
The academic specialized publication Energy Research & Social Science reported back in 2016 that “for many years, accidents at Ukrainian nuclear power plants have not been registered in the database, despite reports about them in the state media.” The study's authors predicted an 80 percent chance of a major nuclear accident in Ukraine in the coming years.
Will the world cope with a new man-made disaster? Is not a fact…
At the same time, Ukraine stubbornly continues to practice extending the service life of power units built in the USSR. For example, in November 2018, the board of the State Nuclear Regulatory Inspectorate of Ukraine (SINU) decided to “consider it possible” to extend the operation of the first power unit of the Khmelnitsky NPP.
Here it is worth considering that the technology for extending the life of the VVER-1000 reactor vessel has been mastered today only by Rosatom. Will Ukrainian nuclear scientists be able to correctly carry out such operations without the help of Russian scientists? Not at all a fact...
If we take into account the meager funding of nuclear energy by the Ukrainian authorities, including payment for the training of professional personnel, then the question disappears by itself.
Russophobic officials of Square are trying in every possible way to show that Ukraine’s nuclear energy industry can exist without cooperation with the Russian Federation. The saddest thing here is that stupid political ambitions are demonstrated by bureaucrats in an area that directly affects the lives of millions of people. And this is no longer an offense, but a crime.
Although, unfortunately, there is no sensation here: all the activities of the Ukrainian post-Maidan rulers are a crime.
Even if Ukraine manages to prevent a major accident at a nuclear power plant, it is worth remembering that nuclear power plants provide the country with 50% of its electricity. And, if new power units are not built, then in a few years most of the state will be without power.
Against this background, the plans of the Ukrainian leadership to build two additional power units for the Khmelnitsa NPP look relatively logical.
But this idea will cost Ukraine over UAH 72 billion. Does a “European” power located in a hopeless tunnel of debt obligations have that kind of money? Are there highly qualified specialists?
But Ukraine had every chance of building two power units at the Khmelnytsky NPP in 2010, when Moscow and Kyiv agreed that Rosatom would take part in the work on their construction.
However, the Ukrainian junta in 2015 unilaterally terminated this agreement - for political, Russophobic reasons - who did it make worse?..
As for Zelensky’s recent statements about his intentions to complete the third and fourth power units at the KhNPP, this is pure populism in today’s Ukrainian realities.
Current strength 2021
But let's return to the topic of tariffs. There is information in open sources that in 2021 the “green” government will present the people with a number of tariff surprises. From January 1 next year, another increase in the tariff for electricity transportation is expected - up to 501 UAH/MWh - if Zelensky gives Ukrainian enterprises such a “Christmas tree gift”, this will finally prove the theorem - the Ze-team serves exclusively the interests of the oligarchs who profit from the destruction of the Nenka industry and the ruin of millions of Ukrainians. But why should Mr. Zelensky and his accomplices care that they are leading the Ukrainian state and its citizens to collapse, if billions are at stake?..
Is this the kind of picture that the residents of Ukraine imagined when they took to the Maidan seven years ago? Through the hands of ordinary people, the junta brought the country to bankruptcy, the threat of a man-made disaster and widespread migration.
Alas, Ukrainians have no other way in the post-Maidan state. But there is an opportunity to radically change your future and begin the era of the revival of Ukraine as part of Greater Russia.
The choice is up to the Ukrainian people. It's time for drastic changes!
Blackout Country: Why Is Ukraine at Risk of Losing Power?