Russian War Against Ukraine: Energy Dimension | DiXi Group Alert – weekly review

May 1-7

Summary

• Damage to distribution networks in the Dnipropetrovsk, Kherson, Sumy, Chernihiv, Kharkiv and Donetsk regions was recorded as a result of strikes by Russian troops. On the night of May 4, due to shelling, a power generation facility in the Donetsk region partially suspended operations, while on the morning of May 5, the attack led to an emergency shutdown of its unit. On the morning of May 3, the Russians attacked an oil depot in the city of Kropyvnytskyi with three UAVs.
• Due to constant shelling, power supply was absent to some consumers in 5 regions. In a week, the specialists were able to restore electricity supply for at least 200,000 consumers.
• The IAEA and the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine report that the occupiers have begun evacuation of residents in Energodar, where the vast majority of the Zaporizhzhia NPP personnel live. The IAEA also reported that Russians had placed military equipment and explosives in the turbine room of ZNPP unit 4.
• The Verkhovna Rada appealed to the parliaments of all foreign countries, the European Parliament and the IAEA to impose sanctions on Rosatom and reduce cooperation in the field of nuclear energy with Russia.
• The Cabinet of Ministers has approved the Energy Strategy of Ukraine by 2050, with no text yet published. According to the Ministry of Energy, the document envisages achieving carbon neutrality through the development of nuclear generation, renewables, and the modernisation and automation of transmission and distribution systems. According to media reports, in the gas sector, the strategy envisages covering domestic demand with own production as early as 2025.
• MinRecovery presented the communication platform DREAM (Digital Restoration Ecosystem for Accountable Management), which will provide a single digital route for all recovery projects: from recording damages to commissioning of finished facilities. Also, the government allocated an additional 3.1 billion UAH for 516 communities in the Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions.
• Ukrenergo and the Polish transmission system operator PSE modernized the powerful line between Poland and Ukraine. Obviously, it is the restored interconnector Khmelnytskyi NPP – Rzeszow, which has been operational since April 27. The modernized line will allow receiving additional revenues from exports, use imports and emergency assistance in the case of need.
• According to the NEURC, as of May 4, Ukrenergo did not submit a draft procedure on joint capacity allocation, agreed with the Slovak TSO. Ukrenergo reported it had submitted all the necessary documents 8 months ago, yet the papers specified relate to the Ukraine-Romania interconnection.
• 10 companies have already approached GTSOU, considering the construction of 31 biomethane facilities with an annual capacity of 225 mcm, so the General Director of GTSOU Dmytro Lyppa.
• The law on creation of the State Fund for Decarbonization and Energy-Efficient Transformation was signed. The Fund will be operational from January 1, 2024, be sourced mainly from the environmental tax, and should become a permanent source of financing energy efficiency projects and programs. 
• The government adopted a resolution about corporatization of State Enterprise NNEGC Energoatom, which will be transformed into a joint-stock company with 100% state-owned shares. 
• In 3 months since the start of the lamps exchange program, Ukrainians have received about 18.2 million LED lamps. 
• The National Anticorruption Bureau (NABU) and the Specialized Anticorruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO) informed about the suspicion of a former member of the management of Centerenergo and his associates, who caused over 176 million UAH losses.