03 October 2024
(The ship's power plant. Photo: Wikipedia)
This week, Ukrenergo plans to start building infrastructure to connect the first floating power plant with a capacity of 250 MW.
This was stated by Oleksii Brekht, Acting Chairman of the Board of Ukrenergo, during an offsite meeting of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Energy, Housing and Utilities.
"Last week, the Cabinet of Ministers adopted a resolution, and our company, as one of the participants in this process, is starting to build the relevant infrastructure this week. This will provide the integrated power system of Ukraine with an additional 250 MW of capacity," said Brecht.
Recently, the Cabinet of Ministers approved measures to organize the installation of gas piston or gas turbine units located on specialized ships designed to produce electricity.
Floating power plants are ships or barges equipped with power plants that generate electricity. The fuel used can be gas, liquefied gas, liquid fuel, etc. delivered through pipelines or special vessels. The electricity generated by the equipment on board is transmitted to the shoreline grid for further use on land. According to the Turkish company, such a station can be installed and put into operation in just a month.
In June 2024, the head of the Odesa Regional Administration, Oleh Kiper, said at a briefing that he was negotiating with Turkey to deploy floating power plants in key ports on the Black Sea and Danube to cover the electricity shortage.
Last February, Energy Minister Herman Halushchenko and Turkish Ambassador to Ukraine Yahmur Ahmet Guldere discussed the use of Turkish floating power plants to supply electricity to Ukraine during a meeting.
In January 2023, the state energy trader, joint-stock company Energy Company of Ukraine (ECU), signed a memorandum of understanding and cooperation with the Turkish company Karpowership in the field of electricity supply and the use of floating power plants to overcome the energy deficit in Ukraine.
At the end of November 2022, Karpowership announced that it was negotiating the deployment of floating power plants to Ukraine to supply electricity as Russia intensifies its attacks on civilian infrastructure.
The possibility of deploying three floating power units with a total capacity of 300 megawatts near Odesa was considered.
However, in early December, the company's president, Zeynep Harezi ,said that the company had been in talks with the Odesa Regional Military Administration, but they said that any property going to Ukraine could not be insured at the moment. Therefore, the UMA would not be able to guarantee the company the safety of the vessels.
Ірина Глухова