Energy crisis predicted for Ukraine

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Energy crisis predicted for Ukraine Source: BBC Monitoring Former Soviet Union - Economic Publication date: 2000-05-27

Text of report in English by Russian news agency Interfax Kiev, 26th May: Ukraine faces an energy crisis in the autumn unless the government takes serious action to boost fuel supplies to power stations and to cut back electricity supplies to debtors.

Ukrenergo, the national power company, told Interfax that power stations could easily be left without fuel. They are dangerously low on nuclear fuel, coal supplies are meager and Russia has curtailed gas supplies to the country.

The energy ministry has said in the past that Energoatom, the nuclear power company, in the first four months of this year paid Russia's TVEL not more than half of the cost of nuclear fuel needed for Ukraine's nuclear power plants in 2000. The year's total requirement is estimated at more than dollars200m.

Coal stocks at thermal power plants as of 23rd May totalled 630,000 tonnes, compared with 2m tonnes a year previously. The ministry does not think that more than 500,000 t of additional coal can be stocked before the start of the heating season.

Ukrenergo believes the crisis can be avoided if the government provides the money to buy fuel at the expense of settling public sector debts for electricity and procures another 5,000-6,000 t of imported coal for power plants.

At present, power supplies have been cut to some 30 per cent of the 45,000 users who owe money for electricity. Between them they consume about a third of the electricity generated in Ukraine

http://cnniw.yellowbrix.com/pages/cnniw/Story.nsp?story_id=10847036&ID=cnniw&scategory=Utilities

-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), May 27, 2000


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