According to the General Director of the “Ukrhydroenergo” PJSC Ihor Syrota it will take years to restore the Dnipro HPP to its design condition after the March 22 missile attack.
"Currently, we are trying to dismantle the remains of the ceiling and walls of the engine room, which are broken and tilted. Therefore, we cannot disassemble the machine room until we dismantle the ceiling, and there the height is more than 35 meters, so that later we can disassemble the rubble there," Syrota said on the Espresso broadcast.
In his opinion, within a week it will be possible to sort out the debris and then the authorities will be able to speak more realistically about the consequences.
"There are many hits to the units themselves, the equipment burned down, that is, there is a lot of work. Today, it is not yet possible to estimate in time and financially. There are units that need to be manufactured completely from scratch, and it takes 18 to 24 months," Syrota explained.
In addition to the restoration of the units, the engine room will also need reconstruction.
"Iʼm not even talking about the fact that it will be necessary to completely restore the engine room, that is, to build a new engine room. And weʼll see what happens on the 4th floor below the station, where itʼs 25-30 meters deep, but thatʼs after sorting out the debris," Syrota added.
According to him, it will be possible to give an approximate estimate of the cost of restoring the Dnipro HPP in 10 days after the demolition of the debris is completed.
A blow to the Dnipro HPP
On March 22, the Russians fired almost 20 missiles at Zaporizhzhia. Among other things, the occupiers hit the Dnipro HPP, but there is no threat of a dam breach. Both stations that are part of the Dnipro HPP (HPP-1 and HPP-2) stopped working, while HPP-2 suffered critical damage. According to the Office of the Prosecutor General, eight missiles hit the Dnipro HPP. In total, three people died and 29 were injured in Zaporizhzhia as a result of the attack. After a rocket attack on the Dnipro HPP hydroelectric power plant in Zaporizhzhia, a large-scale leakage of oil products into the Dnipro River occurred.