1ST LEAD Ukrainian government admits power crisis By Nikolaus von Twickel
Moscow (dpa) – Ukraine‘s energy crisis deepened on Friday, as the
government admitted that depleting coal reserves forced power plants
to reduce output.
Energy Minister Volodymyr Demchyshyn said in Kyiv that the situation
was worst in three plants in eastern Ukraine.
“We have 1.4 million tons of coal in stock, but some power plants
only have minimal reserves and cannot work at full force,” he said
according to an official transcript.
Demchyshyn added that fresh coal is constantly being supplied to the
plants in the Dnipropetrovsk and Kharkiv regions.
The minister also threatened to fire the executives of a major state
energy company after a media report said that the firm‘s coal
reserves had fallen dramatically.
The management of Tsentrenergo is “disorganized and incompetent,”
Demchyshyn was quoted as saying in Kyiv according to local news
agencies.
The Ukrainskaya Pravda news site reported earlier that the power
company‘s coal reserves dropped from 969,000 tonnes in July to 58,000
tonnes in November.
Most of Ukraine‘s coal production lies in the eastern Donbass region,
much of which is controlled by pro-Russian separatists. Many coal
mines have been idle for months.
Energy minister Demchyshyn said 2 million tons of coal stored in the
eastern regions cannot be delivered because of rail disruptions and
security concerns.
On Thursday, Demchyshyn called on Ukrainian industry to reduce power
consumption by 15 per cent during evening peak hours and to introduce
night-time production shifts in order to prevent blackouts.
The minister said the country currently lacks a power output of 3,000
megawatts.
The capital Kyiv has been hit by power cuts over the past week, after
a nuclear power plant in the southern Zaporizhia region was partly
shut down because of a technical fault.
The electricity shortages add to Ukraine‘s woes as the country faces
serious gas shortages due to it being billions of dollars in arrears
to Russia.
The Ukrainian National Bank said Friday that foreign currency
reserves dropped by 20.8 per cent over the past month because of
payments for Russian gas.
The country‘s central bank had 9.97 billion dollars in reserves as of
December 1, 2.62 billion dollars less than on November 1, the bank
said in a statement.
The bank said the figure includes 1.45 billion dollars for payments
to Gazprom.
Russia‘s energy giant renewed gas deliveries after Ukraine agreed to
pay arrears and for deliveries up front.