Khmelnytskyi nuclear power plant in western Ukraine: Should help to “resist the Russian energy pressure”
Photo:
AFP/ Presidential Press-Service Pool
Europe is desperately looking for new sources of energy to free itself from dependence on Russia.
Nuclear power from Ukraine, of all things, could defuse the situation: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has now offered the EU comprehensive support with electricity from his country.
"We are preparing to increase our electricity exports to consumers in the European Union," said the head of state in a video message in Kyiv on Wednesday evening.
After Ukraine was connected to the European electricity grid in March, the country started exporting electricity to the EU a few weeks ago.
"Ukrainian electricity can replace a significant part of the Russian gas consumed by Europeans," Zelenskyy said at the time.
"It's not just about export earnings for us, it's a question of security for all of Europe." A large part of the electricity produced in Ukraine comes from nuclear energy.
Potentially up to 2.5 gigawatts from Ukraine
"Our export not only allows us to earn foreign exchange, but also allows our partners to resist Russian energy pressure," said the President, referring to Russia's significantly reduced gas supplies.
Gas is also used to generate electricity.
Russia's energy giant Gazprom had reduced deliveries through the Baltic Sea pipeline Nord Stream 1 again on Wednesday because of alleged technical problems - this time to 20 percent of the maximum volume.
According to Ukrainian information, the delivery volume to the EU was initially only 100 megawatts.
However, Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal has already announced that Ukraine is potentially able to export 2.5 gigawatts of electricity to Europe.
"Step by step, we are making Ukraine one of the guarantors of European energy security, precisely through our domestic electricity production," said Zelenskyy.
Before Russia's war of aggression, Ukraine was still dependent on electricity imports from Russia and Belarus.
As Zelenskyj explained, a large part of the self-produced energy is now not needed because production has come to a standstill due to the war.
However, the Russian troops had recently captured the largest nuclear power plant in Enerhodar, a hydroelectric power plant on the Dnipro River and at least two coal-fired power plants.
Before the start of the war, the Ukrainian network was synchronized with the Russian network.
At the end of February, on a Ukrainian initiative, it was decoupled from neighboring Russia and Belarus for a long-planned test, even before Putin's troops marched in.
The grid was then in so-called isolated operation and was considered to be particularly vulnerable until it was connected to the European grid of transmission system operators (ENTSO-E).
apr/dpa
