Ukraine receiving insufficient coal from Russia, Ukrainian GenCos say

Ukraine has not received Russian steam coal since Dec. 6, when 50 kt of coal were imported, the tyzhden.ua news site reported on Dec. 12, citing the press service of the Energy Ministry. The companies that operate power plants burning deficit coal grades, Centrenergo (CEEN UK) and DTEK (DETKUA), confirmed to tyzhden.uathat coal supplies from Russia are very scarce and irregular.

In particular, Centrenergo reported on “20-25” railcars of imports received by the Zmiyiv Power Station (about 1.5 kt, which is enough for half a day of work for one power unit at the station). DTEK reported on 26 kt of coal received from its Russian suppliers and 35 kt that were imported from its own Russian mines since the beginning of December. DTEK’s total planned imports from its Russian counterparts in December were 625 kt and the schedule is not being met, according to tyzhden.ua.

Ten power units of 2.5 GW power capacity at Centrenergo’s power stations burning anthracite coal were idle due to a coal deficit as of Dec. 10 (74% of the plant’s total coal capacity), according to Ukraine’s energy system operator Ukrenergo. DTEK Dniproenergo was also unable to operate six power units, of 1.4 GW capacity, at its two anthracite-fired stations (31% of the two plants’ total coal capacity). The total deficit of power capacity in Ukraine’s energy system was 3.1 GW on Dec. 10.

Alexander Paraschiy: We believe the Russian government is not allowing sufficient coal supplies to reach Ukraine as part of a strategy to force the government to buy anthracite coal from the occupied territories of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions (the location of all Ukraine-based deposits of anthracite). The alternative to buying anthracite from Russia or the occupied territories is to burn natural gas for power generation purposes, which is twice as expensive than burning coal. Another option considered by the government is importing electricity from Russia.

Thus far, the government is trying to solve the deficit of available capacities by limiting power demand via rolling power cuts in times of peak demand for electricity. It has yet to decide on whether to continue artificially limiting power demand, or to deal with the Russian government, as the Energy Minister has suggested.