Ukraine says needs to overhaul power grid amid attacks

By Agence France Presse

Ukraine said Thursday it needed to completely decentralise its electricity grid to reduce its dependence on larger power stations, amid a series of deadly Russian strikes on its energy infrastructure.

Moscow launched a massive missile and drone attack on Ukraine’s power grid on March 22 and has kept up strikes since, repeating its campaign of aerial bombardment that plunged millions into darkness in 2022 and early 2023.

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“We can state that the intensity of the attacks has increased. (Before) we saw one massive attack in one or two weeks. Now it’s a whole series, almost continuous,” said Volodymyr Kudrytsky, head of national grid operator Ukrenergo.

“Instead of having 15 or 20 large power plants, we will need to build hundreds of small ones that will be more resistant to these attacks due to their dispersion,” he said.

This will involve setting up “hundreds of facilities of various types” including gas-fired and renewable power stations, he added.

He cautioned that Ukraine would need to raise money from private investors to carry out the plan, but said changes were urgently needed to ensure the country’s energy security.

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Some 350,000 people in the northeastern Kharkiv region currently face restrictions on power usage after repeated strikes on the grid, Ukraine’s energy ministry said Thursday.

The attacks come at a difficult time for Ukraine, which is facing critical shortages of air defences to protect its skies and ammunition to defend the front lines.

It has been forced to import electricity from abroad and has urged consumers to use power sparingly as the strikes put the electricity grid under significant strain.