Up to 16 hours of outages: expert forecasts what Kyiv residents can expect this winter

Ukraine is preparing for an extremely difficult winter amid ongoing energy terrorism by Russia. Preparations for the strikes were undertaken, but more could have been done.

This was said on the air of 24 Channel by the head of the Union of Utility Service Consumers, Oleg Popenko. According to him, under certain conditions Kyiv residents may face 14–16 hours of outages per day. The situation could also be better. Everything depends on the number of concentrated attacks and the condition of energy facilities.

What is wrong with the preparation for the heating season?

As Popenko emphasized, the government recently paused part of the funding for protecting energy facilities due to a difficult fiscal situation. It is not certain that some of the work will be completed before winter begins.

Attention! Ukraine has so far received 29,5 billion dollars less in funding from international partners. Right now everything depends on how quickly the Cabinet of Ministers and the Verkhovna Rada adopt all the necessary decisions. Because of this, the government had to postpone non-priority expenditures.

It is also extremely important now to finish installing gas piston plants at district heating enterprises and powerful generators at water utilities. Also — to provide backup power to apartment buildings to maintain heat supply and sewerage operation during prolonged outages.

What Kyiv's outages will be like this winter: watch the video on 24 Channel

Overall, the most vulnerable to power outages are million-plus cities (Kharkiv, Kyiv, Odesa, Dnipro) and frontline regions. In the West it will be easier thanks to the ability to import electricity from the EU.

Additionally, former Minister of Fuel and Energy of Ukraine Ivan Plachkov pointed to three factors that will affect the duration of outages in winter. Weather should also be considered here. In favorable weather, the outage period will be significantly easier to get through.