In addition to the existing problems that are not being solved, the government is also preparing a new one – with the appointment of a new head of the “Operator of the GTS of Ukraine”.
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On the eve of a difficult winter, Ukraine does not have sufficient fuel reserves, it does not have real support in this area on the part of the Allies, but at the same time the preparations for the heating season are by no means conducted in a wartime mode, but at the usual pace of previous years. An energy engineer and economist with 20 years of experience in the energy industry writes about this in his article for ZN.UAMykola Tesla .
“Each consumer has expectations , that the government prepared for this struggle in wartime mode. Unfortunately, this is not the case. The Minister of Energy and the Deputy Head of the President's Office, responsible for the heating season, did not repeat Valery Zaluzhny's success. On the eve of a difficult winter in our country insufficient fuel reserves and no real support from allies,” the expert writes.
Yes, according to him, the most obvious problem today is the lack of gas.
However, Naftogaz has no money, the company is bankrupt. Moreover, the figure of 13 billion gas allegedly pumped into the storages is inflated, because it takes into account the so-called buffer gas – the one that is used to lift from the storages and which will be impossible to extract in the middle of winter.
Read also: Kucherenko: there is not the amount of gas in storage that Naftogaz reports on
At the same time, with< /strong> the situation is even more difficult with coal reserves mined by state mines and the DTEK corporation.
“The Ministry of Energy is lying when it claims about “reduction in production due to the war”. Production at state-owned mines has been falling for more than a year: nobody wants to control their work, everyone is limited to emptying the state budget to cover miners' salaries,” Mykola Teslia emphasizes.
“According to the data we managed to find from energy colleagues, this year's preparation for the season is in no way different from all the previous ones, no “wartime regime” was foreseen and is not foreseen. State mines operate in minimal mode– there is not enough money either for equipment or for miners' salaries,” the expert claims.
As a result, the country produces 1.1– 1.2 million tons per month. Taking into account consumption, this means that we add no more than 400 thousand tons per month to the warehouses before the heating season. At the beginning of the heating season, coal will be slightly less than 3 million tons. Then the warehouses will begin to work , and these reserves will be close to enough for us. As well as gas.
The situation with nuclear energy. due to which Ukraine got through the last winter, which is well known to everyone.
The work of the units of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant is the most powerful not only in Ukraine, but also in Europe, under question. Stopping the Zaporizhzhya nuclear plant, which is threatened not only by the occupiers, but also demanded by the international community (albeit for a different reason), will make the station an energy consumer, because the reactors will need to be cooled.
Read also: The White House told how they see the future the operation of the ZNPP
The capacity of the Khmelnytsky NPP will also be smaller – the consequences of the accident of one of the turbines have not yet been eliminated there.
“And this is only what we know, because Energoatom does not publicly report on the state of preparation at other stations. Therefore, only the person who actually manages the industry and preparations for the heating season knows about the real balance of the existing nuclear units. This is Andriy Yermaka's deputy Rostyslav . Shurma. That's if he was told the truth,” Mykola Teslia emphasizes.
Complete failure and with the idea “Energy Support Fund for Ukraine”, which the Europeans announced at the beginning of April (!) this year.
“It was a great platform through which we could get live money, if the relevant departments started doing their work. But as a result, the fund was never filled with money – Ukraine was unable to propose real projects,” the expert claims.< /p>
Not a word about financing energy efficiency projects in cities and communities either— city halls face winter face to face, so even in desperation they talk about firewood, small pots and the need to have a “spare stove in the village”.
“All this does not look like a “wartime regime” for preparing for the heating season,” the expert writes.
Read also: “The most difficult winter in the years of independence”: the government is creating a headquarters for preparing for the heating season – Zelenskyi
“As the government and the president's office will get out of this situation, it is not clear now, regular requests for the provision of “gas lend-lease” run into demands to restore corporate governance in the industry. To which neither the government nor the president's office can yet agree, despite the direct hints of the ambassadors of the “big seven”, – Mykola Teslia notes.
Moreover, the appointment of a new head of the “Operator of the Gas Transport System of Ukraine”, which is already under the signature of the prime minister, may further spoil relations with allies.
“As in the case of Naftogaz, with public humiliation of corporate governance rules. Although in public, the head of the president's office Andriy Yermak fervently supports the principles of OECD corporate governance,” the expert notes.
Related video
About how the government is preparing for the upcoming heating season, read more in the article Mykola Tesli – “A very warm battalion”.
