Cape Town – Hourly power outages will now become the norm for Ukrainians, the country’s energy utility said on Wednesday.
“Today, November 2, hourly outage schedules were put into effect from 6 am [04:00 GMT],” the company wrote on Telegram.
Last week, Ukraine’s state energy company said it was limiting electricity use in multiple regions of the country after Russian attacks overnight targeting energy infrastructure.
According to Ukrenergo, the energy suppliers dispatch centre provided distribution network operators with volumes to limit power supply in the format of hourly outages for consumers in Kiev and Kiev region, as well as in Chernihiv, Cherkasy, Zhytomyr, Sumy, Kharkiv and Poltava regions, Sputnik reported on Wednesday.
The power company on Wednesday afternoon said that the schedule of hourly outages was not enough to maintain the power system’s stable operation.
“The Dispatch Centre NEK “Ukrenergo” is forced to provide from 11am operators of distribution networks (oblenergo) volumes to limit the electricity supply of all categories of consumers in Sumy, Kharkiv and Poltava regions. The power of hourly outages in these areas has been temporarily suspended.
“Temporary controlled restrictions of all categories of consumers are needed to reduce grid load, maintain stable balance of energy systems, and avoid recurrent accidents after power grids have been damaged by rocket shelling,” it said.
The power company said this will enable energy workers to restore damaged energy facilities as soon as possible, balance the system, and power consumers.
