The United Energy Systems (UES) of Ukraine worked steadily in the first ten days of December. This was mainly due to the very warm weather, according to the former Acting Minister of Energy Olha Buslavets.
This week, the imports of electricity from Belarus amounted to 400-900 MW per day. The generators of electricity from renewable sources (RES) were unloaded almost every night by 317-917 MW. The share of Energoatom in covering the load has increased to 63%, yet UES is experiencing a shortage of flexible generation that, as a rule, is provided by thermal and hydroelectric power plants (TPPs and HPPs).
Coal stocks at TPP warehouses since the beginning of December increased by 34,000 tons (by 9%) and by the morning of December 10 amounted to 422,000 tons. At the same time, reserves at private TPPs increased: at DTEK—by 13% and at Slovianska TPP Donbasenergo—by 35%. The reserves of the state-owned Centrenergo decreased by 6%.
The situation at the Luhansk TPP remains critical. The only way for it to supply coal is by rail through the Russian Federation that has banned the supply of thermal coal to Ukraine since November 1. At the moment, there are 28,000 tons of coal at the station. There will be enough of it only until the end of December.
On the morning of December 10, 22 units of the TPP and CHPP were not operating due to lack of fuel; there were no blocks in emergency repair. NPPs operated with 14 units out of 15 with a total capacity of 12 GW.
Out of 20 power units at Centrenergo, 5 units were in operation, 11 reported lack of fuel, the remaining 4 were under repair.
At the Slovianska TPP, half of one unit was in operation.
Top energy news of the week
On December 5, two ships with coal arrived in Ukraine. DTEK received 66,000 tons of coal from the USA and Colombia, and Centrenergo—75,000 tons from Australia.
Record high electricity prices were in the Baltics. The reason is repairs at gas-fired thermal power plants and low production from RES. The maximum prices reached 1,000 EUR/MWh.
In Poland, the emergency repairs of a number of units created a power deficit of 1-2 GWh. The country has requested emergency assistance in Germany, Ukraine, Lithuania, and Sweden. Sweden launched a reserve thermal power plant on fuel oil to help Poland. Ukraine has provided assistance to Poland with a total volume of 945 MWh.
The President of Ukraine signed a law that provides for a subvention from the state budget to local budgets to eliminate arrears in the form of compensation for the difference in tariffs in the amount of 26.9 billion UAH.
NEURC applied penalties to 18 trading companies for violating the rules for selling electricity in the market. Most of these companies were imposed a maximum fine of 1.7 million UAH.
On December 8, 300 million UAH was transferred to the state mines to pay salaries to miners. This amount is the second part of the funds allocated in accordance with the changes in the 2021 state budget on the additional transfer of 1 billion UAH for payments to miners. At the same time, the Ministry of Energy applied to the Ministry of Finance with a proposal to increase the cost of paying salaries to miners this year by 900 million UAH. Another 90 million UAH is planned to be redistributed through savings in other budget programs of the Ministry.
As of December 7, there were 15.6 billion cubic meters of gas in underground storage facilities.
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