Engineers have connected Ukraine to a power grid spanning much of continental Europe, allowing the country to decouple its power grid from hostile Russia, officials said Wednesday.
Belgium-based ENTSO-E, which represents dozens of transmission system operators in Europe, said the power grids of Ukraine and its smaller neighbor Moldova have been successfully synchronized with the continental European power grid on a trial basis.
“This is an important milestone,” the group said.
Network operators had been preparing such a move since Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea, but Russia’s large-scale military attack on Ukraine last month prompted an emergency request from Kyiv to speed up a process that was expected to take years to complete.
View of power lines, power lines in western Ukraine on June 6, 2021. Nikolay Tys/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images
ENTSO-E, whose 39 members operate the world’s largest interconnected electricity grid, said the move means they can help keep Ukraine’s and Moldova’s power systems stable.
The two countries were previously part of the Unified Energy System, which also includes Russia and Belarus. This made Ukraine dependent on the Russian grid operator, despite the fact that there had been no electricity trade between the two countries for many years.
“This step will give Ukraine the opportunity to receive electricity if (Russia) continues to destroy our energy infrastructure and thereby save our energy system,” said Volodymyr Kudrytsky, chairman of the board of the Ukrainian grid operator Ukrenergo. “We are sincerely grateful to our European partners for their great support and assistance during these difficult times.”
Georg Zachmann, an expert at the Brussels-based think tank Bruegel, said the transition would allow energy suppliers in the continental power grid, which stretches from Portugal to Poland, to supply electricity to Ukraine when needed.
This could allow Ukraine to turn off some of the coal-fired power plants it currently continues to operate to ensure grid stability and save precious wartime fuel, he said.
In the long term, Ukraine could export surplus electricity from its nuclear power plants to the rest of Europe.
“It’s a good win-win situation,” Zachmann said. “Maybe it’s even good for the climate.”
More