Power outages will continue until spring: reasons for the immutability of schedules

In Ukraine, power outages may continue until the beginning of spring. Even if there are no new mass attacks from Russia, a rapid improvement in the power supply situation should not be expected.

This opinion was expressed by Yuriy Korolchuk, co-founder of the Institute of Energy Strategies. He noted that the main problem is the high winter electricity consumption, which exceeds the power system’s capacity.

The expert explained that during the cold season, many Ukrainians use electricity not only for lighting and household needs but also for heating their homes, which creates an additional load on the power grid. This load is difficult to compensate for, even if power plants operate stably.

When people use electricity en masse for heating, the power system is operating at its limits. A decrease in consumption can only occur with warming, which will reduce the load.

Even under the best conditions, without new attacks and with the possibility of repairs, power engineers are forced to implement long, uneven outage schedules. Currently, the power system has no capacity reserve.

The slight improvement observed during the New Year and Christmas holidays was temporary. During this period, electricity consumption decreased slightly, enabling a reduction of approximately 2,000 MW in load. However, after returning to the usual rhythm of life, the situation became more complicated again.

The expert emphasized that real stabilization is expected only after the end of the heating season, when demand for electric heating will decrease, and the power system will operate more reliably.

“The situation will not change significantly until the end of winter,” Korolchuk summed up.