KIEV, September 2 (RIA Novosti) – Coal reserves at Ukraine’s electricity producing thermal power stations will only last until this November, the chairman of Ukraine’s Union of Mineworkers Mykhailo Volynets said Tuesday.
“Free Miners Union today warns people that we are not ready for the winter and that our reserves of coal will run out in November,” Volynets said during a press briefing.
According to earlier media reports, Ukraine’s Ministry of Energy sent a message to local energy saving companies about possible temporary electricity blackouts due to capacity shortage in the national grid, just as it was in the 1990s.
Volynets also added that currently 1.7 tons of coal is stored in Ukrainian thermal power plants, which is not enough to meet requirements, particularly in light of the interruptions to coal mining output due to the military operation in the south-east of Ukraine.
The Director of the Environmental Investment Alexei Habatyuk believes that mazut can not be an effective alternative fuel for the Ukrainian thermal power plants as its stocks in warehouses today are negligible.
According to the expert, it generally impractical to use mazut (a type of low quality fuel oil used throughout the former Soviet Union) for power generation, its purchase for this purpose is 5 times more expensive than the price of coal.
Earlier, Ukrainian Energy Minister Yuriy Prodan stated that the country is actively looking for coal distributers.
