In the modern structure of the national economy of Ukraine, energy occupies one of the leading places. This is the oldest branch of the Ukrainian economy. It is based on the combustion of fossil coal, gas, fuel oil, as well as the use of nuclear and natural energy from large rivers. What is the difference between the current state of energy in Ukraine? What are the main prospects for its development? The answers are in our article.
Energy of Ukraine: its structure and geography
The main consumers of fuel resources and electricity in the country are public utilities and heavy industry (in particular, enterprises of ferrous and non-ferrous metallurgy). The modern energy sector of Ukraine is represented by thermal, nuclear and hydroelectric power plants (see the diagram below). The share of wind and solar stations in the overall structure of electricity generation, although increasing in recent years, still remains miserable.
Ukraine has quite large reserves of coal (Donbass and Volyn). It also has minor deposits of natural gas. A number of large thermal power plants of the country operate on these resources. Among them are Krivorozhskaya, Uglegorskaya, Kurakhovskaya TPPs. In general, Ukraine provides itself with only 58% of fuel resources. The rest has to be imported from other countries.
The Dnieper River in the era of Soviet industrialization, in fact, was turned into a cascade of reservoirs with hydroelectric power plants. The largest of them is located in the city of Zaporozhye. This is the famous Dneproges, which generates over 2,000 million kWh of electricity per year.
Ukrainian energy is a rather complex technical system. Its structure includes a number of facilities: power plants (thermal, nuclear, and others), power lines, cooling ponds, slag and ash dumps, radioactive waste storage facilities, etc. Most of the power plants are concentrated in two regions of the country: the Donbass and the Dnieper region. The geography of the Ukrainian energy industry is shown in more detail on the following map:
Thermal power industry
About half of Ukraine's electricity comes from thermal power. It works both on its own and on imported raw materials. The largest thermal power plants are located in the southeastern part of the country: Uglegorskaya, Zaporozhskaya, Zmievskaya, Krivorozhskaya, Kurakhovskaya and others. As of today, the thermal power industry of Ukraine is in dire need of an integratedmodernization of equipment and the introduction of new resource-saving technologies.
Nuclear power industry
Nuclear power plants provide about 40% of the generated electricity in Ukraine. At the same time, there are only four of them in the country: Rivne, Khmelnytsky, Zaporozhye and South Ukrainian. It is important to note that the share of nuclear energy in the overall structure of the industry is only increasing every year. At four Ukrainian nuclear power plants today, a total of one and a half dozen power units are operating. Their total capacity is about 13,000 MW of energy. All nuclear power plants in Ukraine were put into operation in the 70-80s of the last century.
Main problems and prospects for the development of energy in Ukraine
There are three main problems in the development of modern Ukrainian power industry:
- Acute shortage of energy resources, which has worsened significantly as a result of the military conflict in Donbass.
- Significant depreciation of stations and equipment.
- High level of environmental pollution caused by the operation of the country's thermal power plants.
According to the adopted "Energy Strategy of Ukraine" (until 2030), the priority measures for the country are the following:
- Reducing the energy intensity of Ukrainian industry.
- Renewal of fixed assets of the energy complex.
- Improving the environmental friendliness of all power plants.
- General reduction in energy dependence of the state.
General countryhas all the necessary conditions for the full and effective functioning of this sector of the economy. The development of nuclear and non-traditional energy (in particular, wind power) is considered a priority.
