The General Director of the “Zakarpattyaoblenergo” on possible power outages

At the request of the regional television, today, December 1, 2014, the General Director of the "Zakarpattyaoblenergo" PJSC Victor Petrov commented on possible restrictions on energy consumption. Here is his short interview.

–  Mr. Petrov, tell us please why schedules of power outages are introduced? Will they do it all over Ukraine, or only in the Western regions?

– Unfortunately, an emergency situation at the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant occured, the 3rd reactor of 1000 MW capacity is out of order, which led to the critical situation in the united energy system of Ukraine. In this regard, the state company NAK "Ukrenergo" ordered to introduce schedules of emergency power and electricity limitation for all energy companies of Ukraine to preserve the integrity of the grid. That is, the restrictions are introduced throughout the country, not just in the West or Transcarpathian region.

– Are there at least approximate predictions on how long it will take to restart the 3rd unit of Zaporizhzhya NPP?

– According to the available information, the situation is not critical. Preliminary, the operation of the unit will be resumed in a week, maybe a little more.  

–   How will power outages occur?

– Every year, each region develops schedules of power outages agreed by all interested parties, including the Regional State Administration. Power outages will take place according to these schedules, but only if there is an order of the dispatcher, in our case – the main dispatcher of the Western region.

– What should people expect? How long will power outages last? Half a day, a few hours?

– If there is an order from the dispatcher, we will try to alternate between consumers, ie, do make it so that outages in each locality last no more than 2 hours.

– Can consumers help somehow in this situation?

– Definitely! I ask all of our customers to restrict their consumption of electricity, especially during peak morning and evening hours. If everyone restraints from turning on washing machine during peak hours or boils water not in an electric kettle but on a gas stove, the consumption will be significantly reduced. Only in this way we all can help to relieve the united energy system of Ukraine.