Russian Armed Forces strikes on Ukraine’s energy system on October 27, 2022 —
analysis
Rybar's team continues daily analysis of the consequences of systemic destruction of Ukrainian energy system facilities.
During the day, our team recorded two hits:
PS Kiev 750kV - autotransformer failure confirmed
PS Belotserkovskaya 330kV - probable damage
Today's attack on the Kiev 750 substation had a much greater impact in terms of efficiency than all previous strikes on the Kiev energy center combined.
At least one single-phase autotransformer 750/330kV was destroyed. The protective screens separating the single-phase autotransformers from each other could protect the rest of the transformers from damage, but the destruction of even one of the three renders the remaining two useless.
The capacity of one autotransformer is 333 MVA: the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation deprived the Kiev energy district of the technical ability to receive 1000 MVA of power from the Rivne and Khmelnitsky nuclear power plants. And that's a lot.
Yes, we understand that the transformer may not have been used at 100%, but we assume that the second three single-phase transformers were damaged as a result of previous strikes (unfortunately, there are not enough facts of objective control).
This is a very serious blow to the energy system of Ukraine. And the consequences were not slow to affect Kiev: a wave of unscheduled power outages covered the entire capital and region.
Despite the presence in Kiev of its own sources of generation - CHPP-5, CHPP-6 (which also suffered as a result of the strike and lost half of the generated capacity), and the Kiev hydroelectric power station, as well as the Trypilska thermal power plant in the immediate vicinity of the capital, their energy is clearly not enough for the normal operation of the power system.
This leads to the conclusion: isolation of nuclear power plants from the rest of the network and consumers is currently the most effective scenario for influencing the Ukrainian energy system.
