Interesting coincidence that less was spent on remediation here

Weather, financial crisis threaten Ukraine power collapse

By Pavel Polityuk KIEV, Jan 27 (Reuters) - Bitter winter weather and a prolonged financial crisis have brought Ukraine's electricity sector to the brink of collapse, with whole regions suffering in cold and darkness as temperatures plunge. "The situation is really bad -- we are producing much less electricity than we need," Mykhailo Terpylo, chief engineer at Kievenergo municipal electricity distribution company, told a news conference late on Wednesday. Terpylo said that 50 Hertz (Hz) should be the standard frequency for Ukraine's electricity grid, while a blinking indicator board placed in the conference room displayed the frequency of just 49.05-49.12 Hz. "If frequency falls much below 49 Hz, power stations will switch off automatically," he said, adding that it had fallen to 48.9 Hz on Tuesday, for the first time since independence in 1991. SOVIET NUCLEAR PLANTS THE BACKBONE OF POWER SECTOR "Ukraine's whole energy system may collapse if just one nuclear reactor switches off," Terpylo said. Eleven of a total of 14 reactors at five nuclear power plants account for around half of all the electricity produced in the country of 50 million. But Terpylo said that the Chernobyl nuclear plant, site of the world's worst nuclear disaster in 1986, had already warned energy authorities that its only operating reactor would be switched off in the next few days because of minor malfunctions.

Nuclear officials say three reactors cut electricity output

by some 10 percent due to low frequency this week. Heavy snow, which hit most of Ukraine this week, has caused numerous power line disruptions, and officials at Europe's largest nuclear power plant, Zaporizhska, were forced to reduce output by some 10 percent after a line breakage. Temperatures, which fell to minus 17 Celsius (-1.4 Fahrenheit) this week, have boosted electricity consumption as demand from heaters and water boilers surges. While electricity supply has become intermittent in Kiev, whole regions outside the capital have been plunged into darkness. Ukraine's main television tower was switched off for an hour on Tuesday because of low frequency in the network. Many schools and hospitals have also fallen victim to the energy crisis, while television channels grimly predict that the crisis may get even worse. ENERGY DEBTS BEHIND ENERGY TROUBLES Energy experts and officials have repeatedly said Ukraine has enough generating capacity to provide its industry and citizens with power, but most local power stations face a huge shortage of fuel. "There is no shortage of electricity capacity, but there are energy debts and a lack of funds to buy fuel," Terpylo said. According to official data, debts to the energy sector have reached 7.3 billion hryvnias ($1.32 billion). "We have hundreds of customers already switched off from power supply for debts," Terpylo said. Ukraine depends entirely on Russian crude oil and natural gas but owes it around $2 billion for the energy supplies. Many analysts say this energy crisis is the first baptism of fire for the fledgling cabinet of reformist Prime Minister Viktor Yushchenko, while others say Ukraine may have to pay off its energy debts with stakes in lucrative local companies. "Unfortunately, we now have to choose between the collapse of our energy system or paying off huge debts to Russia with our most attractive companies," one electricity trader said.

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-- phil (phillipmorris@mindspring.com), January 27, 2000

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do you have links?

-- boop (leafyspurge@hotmail.com), January 27, 2000.