In the aftermath of the Russian air strikes shutting down power plants in Ukraine overnight on Nov. 7-8, Ukraine’s acting president Volodymyr Zelensky is fantasizing that he can buy 27 Patriot air defense systems. A complete Patriot system includes anywhere from 16 to 36 launchers; radar and communications equipment; a command and control station; and the logistics to supply munitions, fuel, and all of the other consumables needed to keep it all functioning.
Zelensky complained that despite support from allies, as long as Russia’s war against Ukraine persists, there will always be a need for additional help. “It’s never enough. It’s enough when the war ends. And enough when Putin understands that he has to stop,” Zelensky said.
Meanwhile, the Ukrainian power generating company Centrenergo’s report that all of the country’s state-run thermal power plants (TPP) stopped operating, sent Vladimir Zelensky’s office “really hysterical,” TASS reports this morning citing the Ukrainian Ekonomicheskaya Pravda media outlet. According to its sources, “the company’s top managers had a not quite polite conversation with the office members.” After the conversation, Centrenergo revised its initial “emotional but in fact truthful” post on Facebook, using some standard wording about repairs being underway and plans to restore the damage as soon as possible. To be clear, the original post remains, but with the “standard wording” appended to it.
Officially, Ukraine lost one gigawatt (GW) of electricity generation in the explosions that hit the country’s power plants overnight from November 7 to 8, the Evropeiskaya Pravda newspaper reported, citing an unnamed government official. “The energy grid lost at least one GW of electricity generation. Some of it has already been restored, some will be restored in the near future, but part of the capacity cannot be quickly recovered,” he said.
TASS notes Ukrainian authorities have recently refrained from specifying the country’s electrical output. Earlier, Kiev admitted that Ukraine had lost about 9 GW of electricity generation, that is, some 50% of its generating capacity. In winter, Ukraine needs to maintain power generation at around 13 GW, raising it to 18 GW during peak loads.
