Ukraine’s Electricity Again Flowing to Europe

Ukraine's Energy Minister German Galushchenko yesterday announced the resumption of Ukrainian electricity exports and a surplus of generating capacity.

"The Ukrainian power system has been operating for almost two months without any restrictions on consumers, with a power surplus,” Galushenko said. “We've gone through the most challenging winter. The next step is to resume electricity exports, which will allow us to attract additional financial resources for the necessary reconstruction of the destroyed and damaged energy infrastructure.”

The announcement comes after Russia’s unsuccessful attempt to destroy Ukraine’s energy grid over winter to put additional pressure on everyday Ukrainians and their government.

Damage from repeated Russian missile and rocket attacks resulted in temporary outages and rationing across much of Ukraine for several months, but restoration efforts appear to have been successful.

Ukrainian energy operators that some 1200 missiles and rockets were targeted at the grid from October, and that 43% of it sustained some level of damage.

In making the announcement, the Minister of Energy emphasized that "providing electricity to our consumers is an absolute priority. Therefore, electricity exports will remain in operation provided that Ukrainian consumers are supplied with electricity and may be suspended if the situation changes.”

Ukraine last exported electricity to Moldova and the EU from June to October 11 last year. During this period, 2.6 billion kilowatt-hours were sold. At tht time, UAH 2.8 billion of the profits earned by exporters were used to cross-subsidise domestic energy prices for Ukrainians.