DONETSK, Ukraine -- It’s easier for the unrecognized Kremlin-backed separatists in Donetsk and Luhansk to hang new flags on the roofs of public offices than to provide energy security for their residents.
As Russia’s war against Ukraine continues in the nation’s core industrial region, locals are concerned about meeting their basic needs. Electricity shortages are especially common in Luhansk Oblast, where major cities such as Luhansk and Pervomaysk don’t have power supplies.
Those entering Donetsk see a depressing view of transmission towers bent over and torn wires dangling in the breeze, a result of the fighting. Tired Ukrainian soldiers are sitting nearby surrounded by garbage piles.
Aleksey Granovskiy, the separatist Donetsk enclave’s energy minister, says the pseudo-state will launch an electricity market and regulator that will set tariffs for a system that relies on locally produced coal. He said his Kremlin-backed separatist allies in Luhansk will be connected to the same system.
“Our whole energy system is heat power plants. We don’t have nuclear or hydro plants. Right now we’re lowering the costs of coal production which will lead to the lower costs of electricity production and, ultimately, to its lower price for the customers,” said Granovskiy on Oct. 21.
On Nov. 11 he mentioned that the Donetsk separatists are ready to export coal to Russia and, therefore, Crimea, that was annexed in March. Overall, any country excluding Ukraine may buy Donetsk’s coal, according to Granovskiy, reports Interfax-Ukraine news agency.
His Luhansk counterpart, Sergey Baranov, however, prefers connecting to the Russian electricity system, although he says the separatist enclave is capable of producing 28 million tons of coal a year, a third of what Ukraine produces annually.
However, joining the Russian electricity market won’t make local residents happy, since prices there are higher than in Ukraine. Ukrainians pay Hr 0.3-1.3 per unit of electricity, while Russians pay Hr 1.4.
Separatists’ possessions in Donetsk Oblast include Zuyivska and Starobeshevska power plants, both coal-based and in pretty good condition. However, Starobeshevska lacks coal and, as of Nov. 6, possessed only 54,100 tons while it needs 400,000 tons monthly during the winter period. The plants are part of a publicly traded energy company, Donbasenergo, that is believed to be controlled by the family of overthrown President Viktor Yanukovych, a fugitive from murder and corruption charges who is hiding out in Russia.
Luhansk part of the territory controlled by the Kremlin-backed militants doesn’t have any major electricity makers. The closest one – Luhansk Power Plant – is controlled by the Ukrainian army. It used to provide the oblast with 75 percent of the electric power it needs, but now it’s constantly under fire from separatists and working at 20 percent of its capacity. Experts say the separatists are intent on destroying it to make life difficult for the local population loyal to the government in Kyiv.
Soldiers of the Ukrainian army and Aidar, a volunteer battalion, guard the entrance to the territory of the power plant. Meanwhile, workers are trying to repair the generators, while many transmission towers are mined.
Attempts to fix the electricity lines in the war zone have been fatal for some of the technicians. “When the electricians went to restores the lines, five of them were killed and three heavily wounded, so now they will work only if safety is assured,” Hennadiy Moskal, Luhansk Oblast governor, told the Kyiv Post.
The rest of the Donbas power producing capacities – Vuglegirska, Kurahivska and Slovyanska power plants have their own problems. Vuglegirska and Kurahivska keep working, though shooting is close. Slovyanska, which is also a part of Yanukovych’s Donbasenergo, was shut down yet in June after the heavy shelling.
The separatists “will have to come to a common denominator – whether to preserve the work of the United Energy Systems of Ukraine … or to get synchronized with the United Energy Systems of Russia, because part of the Donbas energy system won’t be able to keep the balance alone,” wrote Svitlana Golikova, head of Transenergoconsulting, an energy consultancy, in an article for Forbes Ukraine.
Splitting the Donbas energy system, which used to produce 18 percent of the electricity Ukraine makes, into two parts will make matters worse, Golikova said, Staying connected to Ukraine’s energy system is the most convenient option, she said.
Russia was reliant on the Donbas energy system for specific technical functions critical for electricity distribution, which means it will have to find someone else if Ukraine’s Energy Ministry refuses. However, Ukraine’s energy producers, such as DTEK belonging to billionaire Rinat Akhmetov, are business-friendlier with Russia. Since August, DTEK purchased as much as 1 million tons of Russian coal, according to Kyiv Post sources. Akhmetov owns the Luhansk and Kurahivska power plants as well as coal mines in Russia’s Rostov Oblast.
“It is so complicated,” replies Dmytro Bendykov, a native of Luhansk Oblast’s Severodonetsk now living in Kyiv. “The electricity is regularly turned off in Severodonetsk, same with access to the internet.”
Olesya Ostafieva, a Donetsk native who also lives in Kyiv, wrote on her Facebook page: “Only one attempt out of 10 is successful when I’m trying to reach my parents in Donetsk by phone.” Oksana Pronina from Luhansk says she has to put a warm brick in her children’s bed to ward off the cold during the night.
Electricity shortages, interruption of phone services and economic destitution seem to be part of the price that people are paying for being part of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s quest to restore a modern version of the Soviet Union.
Kyiv Post associate business editor Ivan Verstyuk and staff writer Oksana Grytsenko can be reached at [email protected] and [email protected].
