"Emergency blackouts, 4-5 hours' of power a day": Energy expert on impact of taking nuclear power plants offline

He shared this on Espreso.

"If our nuclear power plants are forced offline, we’ll be looking at emergency power measures. Specifically, power could be limited to just 4-5 hours a day. This is a worst-case scenario, but one we should be prepared for. That said, the Russians are mainly targeting the distribution systems. Our engineers have gotten really good at restoring those quickly. We’ve built up strong electricity reserves, and our specialists are rapidly repairing damaged distribution stations. Just look at the last shelling — three weeks later, our power grid was back in operation, and we’ve been managing with almost no outages," Dyachenko said.

He further explained that if the energy system avoids major destruction, we might see a relatively stable power supply this winter.

"Of course, our power grid isn't as stable as we'd want. But the drop in temperatures has helped ease the strain, and we’ve been able to tweak the outage schedule. If we manage to prevent further damage to the system, we could get through winter under somewhat manageable conditions," he added.

• Over the past week, IAEA experts reported drone activity near the South Ukraine Nuclear Power Plant three times.
• The Ministry of Energy believes Russia is deliberately sending missiles and Shahed drones over Ukrainian nuclear plants and has informed the IAEA of these incidents.
• On September 21, 2024, Ukraine's Foreign Minister, Andrii Sybiha, stated that, according to intelligence, the Kremlin is preparing strikes on critical nuclear energy facilities before winter begins.