Petr Kotin, Acting President of the National Nuclear Energy Generating Company EnergoAtom, informed about restrictions imposed by the government on power generation on his Facebook page. He specified that as of May 27, 2020, the capacity of the Ukrainian nuclear power plants was reduced by a third – from 9,490 MW available to 6,630 MW.

“This isn't likely to help solve the company’s financial issues and maintain the stability of the country’s energy market,” Kotin emphasizes.

А third of the power blocks (5) at the nuclear power plants do not function in the normal operating mode. Only 10 out of 15 blocks operate as usual.

Many power blocks operate in the balance restriction mode, several blocks are under repairs and one is on stand-by. However, it is not related to the repairs or technical possibility of operation.

“The plants have never postponed the repairs of the power blocks or used it as a possibility to ‘improve safety’. We have performed and continue to perform planned repairs as scheduled. Furthermore, all safety measures are finely detailed, step by step, and, usually, do not require shutting down of the power blocks or putting them on stand-by. At the moment, we can carry out all scheduled actions for the improvement of safety until 2023. The most important thing is that the company is not being driven into debt and that we have an opportunity to make money and close all transactions with our contractors,” Kotin emphasizes.

As a reminder, nuclear power is the cheapest power source in the country. The other two – thermal and green energy are much more expensive, provoking electricity tariff increase.

The government is raising the electricity prices for the general public starting from July 1, 2020, despite the fact that the people’s incomes have dropped due to the coronavirus pandemic, while shutting down the cheapest source of energy – nuclear power.

This is all being done upon the instruction of the new Energy Minister Olga Buslavets and Prime Minister Denis Shmygal, who are not protecting the interests of Ukraine and its people, but rather act in the interests of the oligarch Rinat Akhmetov, who owns thermal energy business, from coal mining to coal burning at thermal power plants. Thus, the country is being switched from cheaper nuclear power to more expensive thermal power in order to increase his profits.

Andrey Pshenichniy for dubinsky.pro