During the most difficult heating season, DTEK Energy power engineers restarted the company’s thermal power plants from scratch and restored their operation after massive attacks 17 times; since the beginning of the full-scale war, they have done so 68 times.
Due to enemy attacks, the plants were forced to shut down completely, or, in the terminology of power engineers, “drop to zero.” This means that a TPP does not generate or supply any electricity to the grid at all. Before the full-scale invasion, “dropping to zero” was an extraordinary event that occurred extremely rarely and only in emergencies; during the war, amid constant attacks on the energy sector, such shutdowns have become regular.
“After each wave of large-scale attacks on our TPPs — and during the last heating season alone there were 11 such waves — power engineers would immediately set about clearing up the damage caused by the attacks and carrying out repair work, in order to get the thermal power stations back up and running as quickly as possible. Restarting a plant from scratch is always a multi-stage, complex professional task performed by skilled teams of power engineers and repair crews. We continue to do everything possible to support the resilience of the energy system and prepare for summer consumption peaks and the next heating season,” commented Oleksandr Fomenko, CEO of DTEK Energy.
Background
Since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, DTEK Energy’s TPPs have been attacked by the enemy more than 220 times. As a result of the attacks, 59 plant employees were injured and four were killed.