President Volodymyr Zelensky asks the European Union to supply electricity to Ukraine before the end of the heating season. For this, the capacity need to build up.
He stated this during the international conference on assistance to Ukraine in the coming winter.
"At least until the end of this heating season, we need emergency support from the European energy system, that is, the supply of electricity from EU countries to Ukraine in the amount of up to 2 GW," Zelensky noted.
The President emphasized that for this, the European network of operators of electricity transmission systems should increase import capacity. According to Zelensky, such support will cost approximately €800 million.
"This is significant, but significantly less than a blackout in Ukraine can cost us all," he added.
In addition, Zelensky emphasized that Ukraine needs a lot of different energy equipment, including transformers, equipment for restoring high-voltage networks, as well as gas turbine and gas piston power units.
Another proposal from Zelensky is to transfer a large number of LED lamps to Ukraine.
"It may not seem so important to someone, but 50 million LED lamps will save about 1 GW of electricity. Considering that the average deficit of our power system is about 2.5 GW, this project could also help significantly," he emphasized.
The European Commission immediately responded to this project. The head of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen informed that the EU will finance the purchase of about 30 million such lamps.
- Russian troops systematically attack critical infrastructure facilities in Ukraine. Currently, about 40-50% of the energy infrastructure is seriously damaged. In this connection, both emergency and stabilizing power outages continue.
- Almost all hydroelectric and thermal power plants in Ukraine suffered one or another damage after massive missile attacks. However, with each new shelling, Ukrainian air defense repels more and more missiles.