Rebuilding generation in the months you have

The spring of 2024 was the hardest period the Ukrainian power system had faced. A concentrated campaign against generation — not only transmission this time — removed a large share of thermal capacity.

The summer window

Between May and September, demand is lower and repair is possible. That window was used with an intensity that is hard to convey: turbine halls rebuilt, generators repaired, equipment imported and installed, and gas piston units commissioned at district heating plants.

Everything done in that window had a hard deadline, and the deadline was October.

Imports as capacity

The interconnection with the European network was expanded, raising the volume Ukraine could import at peak. That is a form of generation capacity that requires no construction inside the country, and in this period it was among the most valuable.

It only works because of the emergency synchronisation carried out in 2022 — a decision whose value kept compounding.

Distributed generation, again

Municipalities, hospitals and water utilities continued installing their own generation and storage with donor support. Every megawatt installed locally is a megawatt that does not have to travel through a substation that can be struck.

The realistic note

The winter that followed still involved restrictions. But the system entered it with more capacity than the spring losses had suggested was possible, and that was the work of one summer and a great deal of imported equipment.