Ukrenergo blames outages on transmission damage, not a generation shortfall

Ukrenergo issued a Telegram statement, reported by UA.News at 20.48 on 9 October. It said current outages were caused not by a power shortage but by large Russian attacks on transmission lines and substations near major cities. The operator says the grid has an overall surplus, which has to be exported at times of peak green generation. Ukrenergo describes attacks on the transmission system around big cities as a new tactic. In some regions, destroyed generating plants are causing local shortages.

Restrictions are spreading. Razom reported on the evening of 8 October that, after a strike on a key energy facility serving Kyiv, Ukrenergo imposed power limits on industry from 00.00 to 23.59 on 9 October. All consumers faced hourly outages of between 0.5 and 2 groups depending on the region. According to UA.News, on 10 October industry and businesses in some regions are again on 24-hour schedules and all consumers face hourly cuts. The operator says air raid alerts and repeated attacks also endanger repair crews.

The scale of the attacks has grown over the past week. France 24 reported that on 7 October Russian missiles and drones struck Kyiv and 12 regions, killing at least 21 civilians and injuring about 60. AP reported on 9 October that Russian strikes had killed more than 50 people in three days. Ukraine is short of Patriot interceptors and cannot stop ballistic missiles. As long as transmission nodes stay exposed to ballistic attack, surplus generation cannot reach consumers.