Ukraine’s race to keep the lights on | DW News

Ukraine’s race to keep the lights on | DW News

Russian energy Terror come to the critical point we still manage but situation is getting worse unfortunately Russia has been blowing up entire power plants in Ukraine some of them belong to my next guest Maxine timchenko he’s CEO of dtec that’s the country’s largest private energy operator timchenko is now part of a massive effort to scrape together as many gigawatts of power as possible before the cold weather sets in in Ukraine we talked about that effort and why renewable energy is suddenly more attractive to keev our conversation took place on the sidelines of an investment conference for Ukraine in Berlin I began by asking timchenko how serious the energy situation is at this moment Mr timchenko CEO of dtec thank you very much for joining usk you I want to begin by asking you about the situation and how urgent it is we can read a lot in the papers about what is missing right now what’s been destroyed how would you describe it to someone who doesn’t really understand what it means for households and businesses so it’s already more than two years pass since fulls scale Invasion we uh survived for two winter seasons but uh in February this year I didn’t expect that the wor in in front of us since end of the March uh after six attacks air strikes Russians destroyed 90% of thermal power generation in this case coal mostly coal and gas fire generation uh they destroy about 30% of Hydra and in total if you take the whole uh generation mix in Ukraine and generation capacity about 50% damage to destroy and the last attack was first of June they started attacking also Renewables so and wind farms so basically it’s uh uh Russian energy Terror they started more than two years ago come to the critical point when uh today this time of the year we already have power outages people stay without electricity for four five six hours uh we still manage to uh maintain power supply to critical infrastructure to our defense industry and defense Enterprises but situation is getting worse unfortunately we know that in 2023 Russia also targeted a lot of infrastructure around the same time of year how is this what we’ve seen now in 2024 how is it different from what we saw then so for two years uh primarily they attacking transmission lines substations uh power grid now they attacking power generation it’s a much bigger infrastructure power stations which produce power the primary target was uh equipment and lines which transmit power from Power Station to uh consumers now they attack directly power stations so they destroy turbines they destroy generators they destroy the source of power in the country what is mean for the coming months everyone thinks about winter you already talked about the blackouts that are happening right now how do you look forward what does it mean so first everybody should understand that situation is critical we shouldn’t uh underestimate uh the seriousness of the situation and we are fighting not only against Russia but Against Time 120 days left before winter season and now it’s time to consolidate all the efforts in the country between energy companies and and our government and all our lives partners and and uh institutions ready to help us so what can be done number one we we we have to find a way to increase crossb capacity that Ukraine will import more electricity out of Europe and we see that it can be increased by 30 35% from what’s currently being imported right now exactly today we the Capa capacity is 1.7 gaw we see that it can be increased to 2.2 2.5 and this is decision of our European Partners primarily in so Association of transmission system operators I know that there is technical talks now with with our colleagues but I think decision should be take very soon so that we can increase flow of electricity out of Europe to Ukraine is the quickest quickest solution number two we need to get more equipment to install at our power stations but this equipment we do not have time to produce new equipment so today we contacted more than 15 countries to get access to decommission coal and gas power stations so that we can dismantle and bring back this equipment and install it in Ukraine to our power station it’s number two and we working very closely now very actively we send several teams to different countries and we already have first supplies coming from Lithuania Estonia and we are very grateful Germany and especially the company rwe one of leading energy companies in Germany that they provided the success to five power stations uh and we see that some of this equipment can be can be bring brought back to Ukraine so that’s the quickest solution to be prepared for the next for the next uh winter I was just going to say can you protect that equipment when it comes in and that’s the the the most the the most important question so all this efforts we doing now and restoring our power unit uh can be destroyed by one attack and we experienced that already so we after first attacks in March we managed to restore uh power units reconnect to the GD and then it’s destroyed again then it’s destroyed again and and we leave in this cycle destruction restoration destruction so we have to get out of this style and only strong air defense system can help us we very glad announcement of Chancellor yesterday about uh sending Patriot and and more ammunition to Iris I can say that iris is very very uh effective air defense system and uh this system protects one of our power station we see but we need ammunition so all our efforts money time can be wasted if we do not strengthen our air defense systems and protection of our power station I just want to make clear we hear a lot about generators being donated to Ukraine what are we talking about in terms of capacity of what a generator can do versus the material the infrastructure that you need right now so as as probably heard our President yesterday said that we lost 9 gwatt of capacity with Peak consumption 18 so actually 50% of our uh generation is not a available at the moment uh generators generators can help us but they cannot replace 9 GB it is just physically technically impossible to bring generators to replace 9,000 megawatt of capacity in the country we have to find different ways as I said we we have to do everything to restore uh equipment now we should bring quick Solutions gas turbines and now we are working here and discussing that we can bring gas turbines and install them before winter so these are uh measures we can we can take and of course we we should bring more generators so we now we need to think and and we do it I know that our government very much uh involved in this how to protect critical infrastructure our cities so that they have autonomous uh sources of power like generators and and other ways so that in in critical situation at least critical infrastructure can be can be connected and have have power you’re obviously on the same page as your president when it comes to the importance of air defense is ke also carrying that message about say the electricity capacity what you talked about the Imports is that a message that ke is also carrying forward do you feel like you’re in lock step you’re a private company of course yes you know for for more than two years we we work as one team I I I cannot see any difference in messages and actions between private companies and our government in state own companies so we work as a team uh we know how to how to deal with this critical situation and the same message is coming so I I know that our ministry of finer very actively talking about increase of crossb capacity for import I know that air defense to protect critical infrastructure in our power station is top of agenda of our president in our government we work closely with Air Defense Forces to to find a way uh and make a priority what to what to protect uh as a as a as a top priority as I said so we work together and the messages are the same what about the financing of this new material that you’re trying to bring in conferences like these they tend to focus on the mid to long term we’re talking about reconstruction you’re talking about 120 days until winter is that on the are you on the same page with everyone at these conferences probably the the only the only difference now and and message coming from private companies and it mostly not to our grant rather than International financial institutions like ebrd European Investment Bank and other other partners of Ukraine then probably it’s time to pay much more attention to private sector and private companies uh historically uh a lot of a lot of focus was on state owned companies and support to State own energy companies now probably it’s in this urgent situation uh we need more financial support from these institutions so we try to deliver this message and we uh we on the market for 19 years so we we we build very very complex project like the largest wind farms and solar farms and and reconstruction we’ve done without thermal power generation we know how to deliver and we know how to take responsibility and good example is wind Park we buil during the war so we invested 200 million euro in 22 23 to build brand new uh wind Park which uh so so needed now for for power supply and we’re ready to continue we need financial support so uh I I give you a good example as I said on first of J of June two solar Farms were attacked by Russians and it took for us only 3 days to restore full capacity of these solar Farms meaning the uh renewable distributed generation like wind Parks solar Parks solar Farms they much more resilient than centralized generation like thermal power Coal Power stations so and we need to build more we have ready to build projects we uh we have people we have knowledge we have experience building this project during year in war time but we need access to Capital what is what is it going to take to convince investors to invest in a company that’s in the middle of a war zone right now this is exactly what we’re doing here we have a lot of meetings we bring our arguments and the the best argument is uh our own example so when I come and say this is what we’ve done this are the risk this how we cope with this risk uh this is what should should the main the main issues and how they can be resolved so if you tell not theoretical stories but stories of your life during the war it sounds very much convincing and uh we see that our financial Financial Partners ready to consider this project uh we we have very very successful conversation with our uh American friends from US government and from us Aid uh from uh Ukraine energy support fund energy Community Secretariat so uh all these talks come to decision and I see that we get more and more support now shortterm urgent support to get ready and not at 100% but but avoid any dramatic humanitarian catastrophe we know what to do and and we we get support but we shouldn’t forget that building more Renewables should start now we shouldn’t wait and end of the end of the war so and we uh we get more and more positive signals about what kind of mechanisms do you still need to be able to to reassure Banks and investors is there a better way to guarantee loans to underwrite loans what do you what do you need so another example uh our partnership with Vestas Danish government leading uh wi turbine producer so uh we we spent several months speaking with with the Danish government and finally decision was made to to provide guarantee for 380 million euro to build 500 100 megawatt wind Park uh in in Ukraine so it’s special decision of Danish government and under this guarantee we can build Syndicate of commercial Banks ready to to invest this project 380 million uh and of course we we contribute our Equity part of of of this so the total the total uh value of this project 450 million euro so and it’s good precedent an example for other governments here in Germany we speak with h Hermes as leading export credit agency we have very good relationship with with this institution uh with support of of of this institution we built uh 300 megawatt wind parks in Ukraine since uh 2012 and basically what I can say that the first uh wind wind Park in Ukraine was built with great support of Germany because equipment was produced in Germany guarantee was issued by ear Hermes from Germany and it Consortium of German Banks provide financing for that basically Germany opened the whole industry of wind generation in Ukraine and I see that that uh it will continue so we speak with these institutions of course we speak with the with American institution US exim Bank uh DFC uh so that they can can provide uh financial support to to other projects in Ukraine so you see a lot more of these decentralize especially renewable projects in the future uh as a kind of guarantee against these attacks how fast can you build them what can you do between now and I guess winter or in one year absolutely uh the irony of this war is that the whole process of decarbonization accelerated in Ukraine so probably it’s first time when we see uh Renewables through the angle of energy security and resilient generation two years ago nobody talk too much that having wind and solar Farms is much more Brazilian than having coal gas or nuclear power generation so today uh we have ready to build projects for 1.5 gaw so we’re ready to start construction for some of them in just in two three months time if we structure fin financing and get equipment then it can can be roll rolled out quite fast and I think that Ukraine can become one of the first countries the European continent we have 100% clean generation mix which consists of nuclear and Renewables so it’s feasible in in our uh in our country we have great potential and wind speed and and good radiation for solar parks and uh we know we have technologist and we have the most important people and experience how how to do that so basically this is our absolute priority and it’s in line with the Ukrainian energy strategy so bringing more uh Renewables battery storage uh new um new technology and automatization of our uh Power greed and this is basically all in our plans we need Partners we need support uh we need uh vendors and financial Financial Partners I know that your company doesn’t operate any of the nuclear power plants I believe there are three others that aren’t controlled by Russia right now do you have any thoughts on where things could lead if those would be targeted what that would mean what you see coming more than 50% of power in Ukraine produced by nuclear power stations basically it’s Foundation of our uh Energy System and uh I’m very grateful to my colleagues from energa atom National company operating our nuclear power power stations that they they they they keep them operating they do all this maintenance and and they follow all safety standards we should have my hope that Russians will not cross another red line and not not Target nuclear power stations and I think nuclear safety and and and this discussion is extremely important and I know that in agenda of of Peace conference coming coming 15 16 in in Switzerland uh and I hope the the whole world will send the message to Russians again don’t cross this red line and touch nuclear power stations or nuclear weapon uh it’s difficult for me to to build any scenario if they if they start attacking Ukraine so it will be a disaster not only for Ukraine ukine but but for the whole European continent and I I don’t I don’t even want to consider this scenario n gaw of power you have 120 days roughly till winter how much of that can you get back can you replace so I can say about our case as I said 90% of our uh coal and gas generation was destroyed or damaged our plan and we have very clear schedule at least 50% of this damage equipment can be brought back by uh by by the next winter so meaning that uh 2.5 gwatt of capacity can be added from our company so for uh I hope that about half from half to 1 gwatt can be added through import through increased import increased import import capacity then I know that our colleagues also working on on on this and probably they they can add 1.52 gaw other thermal power thermal power a so in general uh we can add sufficient capacity to avoid humanitarian catastrophe unfortunately for the next winter people will be staying without power but our goal now is to talk about hours without power like we have it now 3 four 5 hours rather than hours with electricity if it stays as it is then we will be talking about 3 4 hours with power supply rather than wice verse so we have to avoid this scenario and that’s what we’re all doing here and every day working on on on Improvement of situation but again coming to key message from my side is air defense and we see that all our efforts uh and and everything what we uh Rec uh reconstruct and restore can be can be destroyed by one or two error attacks Maxim timchenko DTE thank you very much thank you very much

120 days – roughly four months: That’s how much time Maxim Timchenko reckons Ukraine has until cold weather sets in, raising the pressure on Ukraine’s crippled power infrastructure. Timchenko is CEO of the country’s largest private energy operator, DTEK, which has lost power plants in recent Russian attacks – part of a Russian offensive that has wiped out half of Ukraine’s power production. He tells Steven Beardsley how he’s now trying to scrape together every bit of generating capacity he can find, including from renewables.

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