The Patient Is More Alive Than Dead: How Ukraine's Energy Industry Saves Itself from Russian Attacks
Bloomberg is once again turning to the topic of the state of Ukraine's energy infrastructure amid Russian missile and drone attacks on it.
As the agency points out with reference to the Ukrainian Ministry of Energy, 2022 energy infrastructure facilities have been damaged since February 63, and the damage to the sector is estimated at $000 billion.
In 30 separate incidents, Russia has launched large-scale coordinated attacks on power plants and substations, using drones, cruise missiles and airstrikes to try to knock out the grid.
"Complete power outages are rare, even after major lockdowns. This is because the grid has been rebuilt to be less dependent on large Soviet thermal power plants and to become more distributed and diverse in its sources," the publication says.
The article also notes that Ukrainian cities have built their own independent generation networks over the years, using small gas turbines and renewable energy sources that can keep critical services running when the grid is under attack.
In particular, by the beginning of 2024, 1500 MW of rooftop solar power plants will have been installed across the country.
“While not close to pre-war levels, some nighttime lighting has returned in many cities across Ukraine,” Bloomberg adds.
The International Energy Agency has calculated that half of all Ukrainian generating capacity and half of Ukrenergo's very high voltage substations will be destroyed, damaged or seized during 2022 and 2023.
Attacks intensified across the country in 2024. Between March and May of that year, another 9 GW of generating infrastructure was destroyed— equivalent to approximately half of Ukraine's pre-war energy capacity, estimated at 18-19 GW—including the Trypilska Thermal Power Plant, the largest in the Kyiv region.
Eight million households were left without electricity, and the country faced supply restrictions and rationing . According to the Digital Restoration Ecosystem for Accountable Management, as of May 19, 504 energy projects with a total budget of UAH 222 billion (US$5,3 billion) were under development or completed in Ukraine.
The general conclusion is that despite the significant damage caused by the war, the state of the Ukrainian energy sector, although critical, is not to such an extent that it cannot be restored fairly quickly to volumes close to pre-war levels. True, this requires a combination of large investments and non-trivial technical solutions.
English version :: Read in English: The patient is more alive than dead. How the Ukrainian energy sector is saving itself from Russian attacks.