Nagornyak: Part of the power outages are due to technical reasons, and there is no shortage of electricity generation.
People's Deputy Serhiy Nagornyak stated that part of the power outages are being implemented due to emergency repairs and the protection of energy facilities from Russian attacks, not due to a shortage of power generation. According to him, there is no reason to expect prolonged power outages in Ukraine this winter, including 16 hours per day in Kyiv, but the situation could change. October 8 schedules of power outages are in effect in several regions.
Power outages are in effect across Ukraine. According to Serhiy Nagornyak, a member of the parliamentary committee on energy, part of the restrictions are being implemented due to emergency repairs and work to protect energy facilities from Russian attacks. Energy workers are restoring power lines and poles that have been damaged by Russian strikes, and at Ukrenergo substations, work is being completed on anti-drone protection for powerful transformers.
For such work, part of the equipment needs to be temporarily disconnected: for example, out of three transformers at a substation, one or two may be taken offline, leaving the others operational. According to Nagornyak, these are technical shutdowns that do not indicate a shortage in the energy system.
Currently, according to him, there is no reason to believe that there will be prolonged power outages in Ukraine this winter, including outages of 16 hours per day, as some experts had predicted for Kyiv. At the same time, he emphasized that the situation in winter could change: due to the reduction in solar power plant generation, electricity production will decrease, and household consumption will increase due to the use of electric heaters. Industrial consumption has significantly decreased after Russian strikes on metallurgical and other enterprises, which, according to Nagornyak, allows one to even speak of a certain surplus in generation.
Nagunyak believes that during the autumn-winter period, Ukraine has a chance to avoid a generation deficit, but he does not specify the exact duration of possible outages: such forecasts would be subjective, as the situation will depend on damage to the energy infrastructure and repair work. He identified a separate risk as attempts by Russia to divide the Ukrainian energy system into the left and right banks, expressing the hope that this scenario will be avoided.
October 8 Power outage schedules are in effect throughout the day in several regions, including Kyiv and the Kyiv, Sumy, Kharkiv, Poltava, Chernihiv, and Zhytomyr regions. In some areas, consumers may experience power outages for 8–12 hours per day. The reason cited is damage to energy infrastructure as a result of Russian attacks.