KYIV, Ukraine — DTEK CEO Maxim Timchenko gave a press briefing on April 7, discussing Ukraine’s energy security, as well as efforts to replace Russian supplies. Much of the talk centered around generating electricity and reconstructing infrastructure.
“The Ukrainian people and armed forces of Ukraine have demonstrated persistent and strong resistance in facing the Russian enemy. Greater consolidation within the international community is required to enable Ukraine’s victory. Since the beginning of the war, DTEK Group has made its contribution to a Ukrainian victory. My company provides electricity to critical infrastructure facilities at no cost. Electricity is supplied to healthcare facilities, military and frontier service offices, as well as bakeries in Donetsk and Dnipropetrovsk regions and in Kyiv,” stated Timchenko.
During March, DTEK supplied electricity to the aforementioned facilities and regions. However, control over DTEK’s Luhansk TPP has been lost. At the same time, due to two shells (that) hit, the Okhtyrka TPP has been completely destroyed. In addition, Trypilska TPP of PJSC Centrenergo and Chernihiv TPP have been under fire. “Meanwhile, DTEK’s efforts remain focused on keeping the lights on in Ukrainian homes. Since February 24th, DTEK has been restoring power lines and as April 7, more than 900,000 households have been reconnected to the electricity grids.”
“DTEK power engineers have started to restore electricity supply to recently liberated settlements in the broader Kyiv region. We expect to restore electricity supply in this particular area within the next two to three weeks. At the same time, approximately 1.5 million households remain cut off from electricity supply. The worst situation is currently in the Donetsk region, especially in Mariupol. The city has been cut off from its supply of heating, electricity and gas for 35 days now.”
European energy security. “DTEK calls on international partners to impose an absolute ban on Russian oil and gas, and cut Russia off from technology supplies to restrict its economy even further. If the world doesn’t put an end to trading Russian oil and gas as soon as possible, Putin’s war machine will continue receiving sufficient money to continue financing the killing of Ukrainian men, women and children,” Timchenko continued.
DTEK, NJSC Naftogas and NPC Ukrenergo have all signed an open letter to the international business community to withdraw from the Russian market. A website with the list of international companies that are still operating on the Russian market has been launched: https://bloody.energy/
“Now is the right time to relieve Europe of overdependence on Russian energy supplies. It is perfectly achievable,” Timchenko emphasized.
How Ukraine can replace Russian energy sources. “Today,” continued Timchenko, “Ukraine has around 1.3 MM tons of coal in stock. The heating season is over, so exporting coal to the EU is feasible. DTEK has even already started exporting coal to the EU. Increasing coal imports from Ukraine today is beneficial for the EU, which has imposed an embargo on Russian coal. In addition, Ukraine has started supplying 200 MW of commercial electricity to Poland.
“The process is already well underway to enable the sale of Ukrainian energy to Europe. In March, the Ukrainian energy system was connected to the European Energy Grids. Although this has been years in the making, the final stages were accelerated, due to the war. At this point, Ukraine is ready to move forward with the launch of commercial energy exports. We’re already in a position to export up to 1.5 GW of electricity to the EU today and can increase to 3-4 GW within a year.” Timchenko concluded.
Company background. DTEK is the largest private investor in Ukraine’s energy sector, engaging in coal and natural gas extraction, in addition to electricity generation from wind, solar and thermal power plants.