Power demand, output in Ukraine drop 40% since start of war with no sign of recovery

By Nuran Erkul Kaya

ANKARA (AA) - Ukraine's electricity demand and generation have fallen by about 40% since the beginning of Russia's war against the country, with nuclear output hit the most, according to International Energy Agency's (IEA) Ukraine Real-Time Electricity Data Explorer on Tuesday.

The IEA, which releases real-time electricity data obtained from the Ukrainian national power company, ENERGO, and the European Network of Transmission System Operators for Electricity, Entso-e, showed that electricity demand stood at around 18.5 gigawatts (GW) a day before the war on Feb. 23.

With the start of the war, demand showed sustained drops to 11.9 GW on April 23 and 9.75 GW on April 24, marking a decrease of 35.5% and 47.5%, respectively.

The country's electricity generation, which was at the 18 GW level before the war, fell by 40% to the 10 GW level.

Among the electricity generation sources, nuclear has been hit the most, decreasing by half since the beginning of the war. However, coal-fired generation has also substantially decreased by around 40%.

According to the Bellona Foundation, an independent non-profit organization headquartered in Oslo, citing World Nuclear Association, Ukraine runs 15 nuclear reactors, accounting for about half of its electricity generation. But seven of these reactors have been disconnected from the grid since the war began on Feb. 24 to keep them cool.

Russia had taken control of the Chernobyl plant for five weeks before withdrawing on March 31.

The Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant, Europe’s largest, fell into Russian hands on March 4 after an intense firefight and shelling by Russian forces which destroyed a training laboratory located near one of the facility's six reactors, Bellona said on its website. Currently, seven of the country's reactors are connected to the grid, including two at Zaporizhzhya, two at Rivne, two in South Ukraine, one at the Khmelnytskyy nuclear plants and the remaining eight are not grid-connected.