OREANDA-NEWS. December 19, 2008. Electricity generation in the united energy system of Ukraine will be reduced by 12% to 172-173 TWh.

Such a forecast was made by the CEO of Donbass Fuel-Energy Company (DTEK), Maxim Timchenko, in his interview to the newspaper ‘Kommersant-Ukraine’.

According to him, the consumption of electricity will continue to fall next year, first of all, in steelmaking, where it has already decreased by 40%. Besides, the reduced consumption can be observed in other industrial segments, says M. Timchenko.

‘According to our information, in 11 months of this year the electricity consumption across the country has dropped by 1.5% against the same period of last year. Consumption started to plunge as early as in October, and, in November, thermal generation produced 28% less electricity than a year before’ explains M. Timchenko, having noted that the generating company Vostokenergo incorporated into the Company’s structure reduced its generation by 35% against November 2007.

In this connection M. Timchenko believes that when forming the balance of electricity generation and distribution for 2009, the Ministry of Fuel and Energy should balance the market in favor of the thermal generation at the expense of reducing the generation at nuclear power plants.

‘Today, they attempt to load nuclear and hydropower sectors to their maximum. That is why the thermal power plants will be mainly affected by the reduced consumption. To maintain the balance between the different types of generation, the nuclear power units are to lower their generation and provide the possibility to the thermal generation to load own capacities’, believes M.Timchenko.

As UNIAN reported, in the summer, the Ministry of Fuel and Energy forecasted an increase in electricity generation in the united energy system of Ukraine in 2009 up to 206.214 TWh with the expected level of 2008 generation of 200.008 TWh.

The generation of electricity in the united energy system of Ukraine in 2007 went up by 1.6%, or 3.006 TWh against 2006, to 195.130 TWh.

UNIAN reference. DTEK is the first private vertically integrated energy company in Ukraine. It is a part of the financial and industrial group System Capital Management (SCM). The enterprises of DTEK build up an efficient operational chain from coal production (Pavlogradugol (10 mines), Komsomolets Donbassa Mine) and enrichment (five enrichment plants), to electricity generation (Vostokenergo) and distribution (Service-Invest, PES-Energougol).

DTEK is the leader in the fuel and energy industry of Ukraine. According to 2007 results, the Company’s market share in the Ukrainian coal mining industry was 20.9%; its share in thermal generation was 27.0% and 5.4% in electricity distribution.

DTEK accomplished 2007 with a profit of UAH 952.43 m.