Ukraine has stated it has sufficient resources to
restore electric power supply to the peninsula, Alexander Novak says
TEHRAN, November 23. /TASS/. Electric power supply in Crimea will be restored within several hours, Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak said on Monday.
"Electric power supply in Crimea will be restored within several hours after repair teams complete their work," the minister said.
"The Ukrainian side has sufficient forces and means to restore electric power supply, Ukrainian colleagues say," the Russian energy minister noted.
Meanwhile, spokesman for Ukraine’s Ukrenergo power utility Zinovy Butsyo said in a live broadcast of TV Channel 112 Ukraine that the company’s repair teams could not start work so far to restore the damaged sections of electricity transmission lines running from Ukraine to Crimea due to a blockade by protesters.
According to the Ukrenergo spokesman, the company’s repair teams equipped with all the necessary tools are staying near the sites of damaged transmission power towers and could start their work any time.
The spokesman could not specify when the repair work would start. He said Ukrainian electric power plants had cut electricity generation by 600 MW after the termination of power supplies to Crimea.
Two towers of electric power transmission lines supplying electricity from Ukraine to Crimea were blown up in the Kherson Region on November 20 after which the Crimean authorities declared an emergency regime on the peninsula.
As of 08:00 a.m. Moscow time (05:00 GMT), 1.66 million people remained without electricity in Crimea. Social facilities in Sevastopol are connected to backup power generators. Crimea generates only 366 MW of electricity, including 232 MW generated by mobile power plants.
Source: ITAR-TASS
23-11-2015
