🔹 Why did the blackouts start in May instead of winter?

The main reason for the blackouts is the massive Russian missile strikes on power plants. Since March 22, there have already been 5: March 22 and 29, April 11 and 27, and May 8. All large thermal and hydroelectric power plants have been damaged. They can no longer produce as much electricity as they did before the attacks. Everything else is a consequence.

Due to the consequences of the attacks, a deficit (shortage) of electricity arose and began to grow in the power system. To compensate for it, power engineers used electricity imports and emergency assistance from European countries, as well as consumption restrictions for industry.

But since Monday, May 13, due to the cold snap, electricity consumption began to grow rapidly: people turned on heaters and air conditioners for heating. At the same time, due to the damage, power plants cannot increase production, and even with maximum import volumes, there is not enough electricity to cover all consumer needs. To maintain the balance between consumption and production, which is the main condition for the safe operation of the power system, NPC Ukrenergo was forced to introduce emergency, and later hourly, power outages for household consumers as well.

🔹 Why do Ukrenergo and oblenergos indicate different blackout hours? Why are there daytime blackouts in the oblenergo schedules?

NPC Ukrenergo: informs oblenergos about consumption limit volumes for each region and the timeframes in which they apply.

OBLENERGO: distribute the received electricity limit for consumers so as not to exceed its volume every hour. At the same time, critical infrastructure (hospitals, boiler houses, water utilities, and others) is prioritized with electricity. The remainder is distributed among industrial and household consumers in each region. All consumers are divided into queues and a schedule is drawn up for them. The schedules indicate the blackout hours for a particular queue throughout the entire day.

But whether the lights will be turned off during these hours depends on whether the region exceeds the consumption limit. If so, the blackout for your address will occur during the hours specified in the schedule. If there is economical consumption in the region during deficit hours and it does not exceed the limit, there will be no blackouts.

Information on exactly when blackouts may be applied in your region can be found in the consumer account, on the official websites of oblenergos, as well as on their social media pages.

🔹 Why is the power turned off at night when consumption drops? When should I use the washing machine and heat the boiler now?

Yes, indeed, the situation has changed. Consumption is lower at night, but it also requires balancing. Russian attacks damaged thermal and hydroelectric power plants, which are capable of quickly increasing electricity production when needed. Additionally, the spring flood is now subsiding. Therefore, hydroelectric power plants cannot operate at night as they did in previous weeks. The system could be balanced by importing electricity, but not enough is received at night.

NPC Ukrenergo attracts emergency assistance from neighboring countries, but it is impossible to take it around the clock, so blackouts have to be applied.

In the current situation, we ask you to move the use of powerful electrical appliances to daytime hours - from 11:00 to 17:00.

This is the peak of solar activity, and solar power plants cover the deficit.