KEEPING THE LIGHT ON WINTER 23/24

“On 25 February 2022, Oleksandr Danyliuk woke up to see Russian soldiers. “I went to bed. The next morning I peered outside my window. It was 6.30am. There were four Russian armoured vehicles opposite my house,” he recalled. Danyliuk, an engineer with Ukraine’s largest private electricity company, DTEK, said Moscow’s invasion took him by surprise.”

Danyliuk’s story is at the heart of a report by The Guardian newspaper into how Ukraine is protecting its energy infrastructure from russian attacks as the country approaches winter.

Read the full story here.

Drawing heavily on interviews with DTEK engineers and CEO Maxim Timchenko, the Guardian’s Luke Harding outlines the intensive work being done by DTEK in order to get ready.

“In 2022 we had to improvise. Now we are better prepared,” the report quotes engineer Danyliuk as saying.

DTEK has spent $110m preparing for the possibility of another russian onslaught this winter.

“We have done everything possible and sometimes impossible to be prepared,” CEO Maxim Timchenko told the paper. “Nobody can guarantee there won’t be blackouts this winter. Unfortunately, we are at war. We can’t predict the scale of russian attacks. We will do everything we can so generators are not used.”

Last winter's attacks on Ukraine's power grids were described as an attempt to break people's spirits and force the country into submission, but in many cases, the hardships strengthened a sense of community. Even so, many dread the prospect of a new season of prolonged blackouts.
 
“moscow’s signature strategy of the last cold-weather season is already being unleashed again this year, in the form of a thunderous barrage of strikes that Ukrainian officials said targeted electricity infrastructure in several parts of the country. The Sept. 21 attacks, the first of their kind in six months, caused partial blackouts in half a dozen provinces, including in the capital region. It was an ominous sign of things to come — and a reminder of hardships past”, the Los Angeles Times writes.
 
Waves of drone and missile strikes last winter eventually hit about half of Ukraine's energy sector, targeting power substations, massive transformers, and other critical electricity infrastructure.

“We know that this winter, they will try again to break us,” said the DTEK crew’s supervisor, 48-year-old Yuri Herasko.

“To be ready for all kinds of difficult scenarios — that’s our job, and we’re working just as hard as we can.”

Read the full story here.

Ukraine’s largest private energy producer braced for more drone, missile and artillery attacks.
Sector is weakened, but determined and more experienced as it heads into heating season
DTEK has spent past 7 months restoring infrastructure, boosting output and preparing defences
DTEK joins calls for allies to boost air-defence systems to keep the lights on in Ukraine

One year after russia launched a massive assault on Ukraine’s civilian energy system, DTEK announces that it is as prepared as possible for more attacks by russian occupiers this winter. Working with Ukraine’s Ministry of Energy and the Armed Forces of Ukraine, DTEK has spent seven months working tirelessly to restore energy infrastructure and building defences. The company pledges to do everything possible to deliver warmth and light to Ukrainians through the difficult months ahead.

DTEK is also adding its voice to urgent calls for further air-defence systems for the country amid growing military intelligence assessments that russia is stockpiling missiles and drones to once again hit power stations, sub-stations and grids.

Thanks to Ukrainians’ unbreakable spirit and the dedication of engineers on the energy frontline, Ukraine survived relentless attacks starting on 10th October 2022 and lasting until early March 2023. Over that time, the country’s generating capacity fell to half its pre-war level and attacks caused $11 billion-worth of damage as millions of ordinary people were plunged into darkness and freezing conditions.

        [Click here for file photos and video of damaged and destroyed infrastructure from winter 2022-23]

DTEK, which generates around a quarter of Ukraine’s electricity and runs 40% of its grid network, has worked around the clock: first repairing energy infrastructure in the immediate aftermath of attacks, and since March, restoring systems and improving defences. Our work includes:

• Restoring power supply to 8.9 million households.
• Spending $107 million to repair and restore thermal power plants (TPPs). Repairs on 16 power units (turbine + transformer) have already been completed and we have reconnected two moth-balled power units to provide an extra 500 MW of capacity.
• Safeguarding winter fuel supplies by doubling coal investments to $200 million and importing 210,000 tonnes.
• Installing additional defensive structures at every TPP to protect them from attack.
• Buying and pre-positioning $36 million-worth of critical equipment at mines, power stations and across the grid network. Investments include the purchase of 224 back-up generators.
• Tripling the pace of drilling at our gas business, and investing $151 million there.
• Developing hard-to-hit renewable energy capacity, including the 114 MW Tyligulska wind power plant on the Black Sea (100km from the frontline), which came online in May 2023.
•  

DTEK CEO Maxim Timchenko said:

"Last winter, determination carried us through. This winter we are stronger and our people are more experienced. We have invested record sums to prepare for the challenge ahead. We restored what could be restored, bought back-up equipment and installed defences around power plants. The occupier may repeat his energy terror this winter, but energy workers stand ready: whether at the controls of a power station being shelled, descending down a mine, drilling oil and gas wells or racing to repair the network. Together, we will keep Ukraine connected”.

In an article covering the winter outlook for Ukraine’s energy sector, The Washington Post quoted DTEK CEO Maxim Timchenko discussing the experience learned from systematic attacks on energy infrastructure.

• “Two weeks ago, Ukraine’s air force said russia launched 43 cruise missiles at targets across the country. Seven slipped through the air defenses, and some struck “energy installations.”
• “The attacks caused temporary blackouts in parts of central and western Ukraine, including the Kyiv region. Last year, russia did not begin a concerted assault on infrastructure until Oct. 10.”
• russian attacks last year “damaged or destroyed” 41 out of 94 “crucial high voltage transforming substations,” where autotransformers are housed.

“We saw how station by station, [the system] literally switched off and stopped producing power and sending this power to the grid,” DTEK CEO Maxim Timchenko said, adding, “It was something you’ve never seen in your life, and I hope you never will.”

Read the full store here.

In an article, covering Ukraine’s winter preparation, The Economist quoted DTEK Executive Director Dmytro Sakharuk discussing the multiple challenges faced in keeping the lights on.

“It is like being a hamster in a wheel,” Mr Sakharuk says of the continual attacks and frustration that, as soon as DTEK crews repair or replace equipment, the russians simply attack again.

It quotes Mr Sakharuk’s talking about the 5,000 of DTEK’s 60,000-strong workforce who now serve in the army. ‘So many have gone to fight that 250 women are now working underground in its coal mines’ the paper writes.

Mr Sakharuk also talks about a threat he believes will be even greater than missiles and drones this winter: cyber. A successful assault “can paralyse the whole system” and that can be “much more dangerous than physical damage”, he says.

The article – subtitled ‘Things may be tougher this time’ concludes: ‘Ever since the invasion began DTEK and Ukraine’s cyber warriors have been battling russia’s hackers; and this, he says, is “a game of cat and mouse”. Once you develop a new way to protect yourself the hackers find a new way around your defences. “You are always in motion,” he says. 

Read the full story here.

A DTEK Energy thermal power plant near frontline fighting with russia was hit in an attack designed to damage Ukraine's energy system, late on Monday night.
 
No employees were hurt on this occasion but the attack on civilian infrastructure caused severe damage and knocked out power and water to a nearby town.
 
The attacks, which the International Criminal Court says constitute a crime against humanity, are the 37th russian strike on a DTEK power stations and the second this autumn. Last winter occupying forces launched over 1,200 attacks on Ukraine's energy system and plunged millions of citizens into cold and dark conditions, and denying other basic services, for weeks on end.
 
DTEK engineers are working to repair the damage and restore power and water supply as soon as possible.

Maxim Timchenko, DTEK CEO, has told Associate Press that the company is ready for more russian strikes against Ukrainian energy infrastructure this winter.

“We learned our lessons,” Timchenko told AP during an interview at DTEK’s headquarters in Kyiv.

In October 2022, russia began massive missile attacks on Ukraine’s energy system, including 35 direct attacks on DTEK Energy power plants.

The company has since spent seven months restoring the damaged infrastructure and strengthening the protection of its equipment for the upcoming winter, investing around UAH 20 billion ($548 million) in the process.
 
Read the full story here.