Ukrainian energy company restarts grid generation from its solar parks

Ukrainian energy company DTEK has told pv magazine its three solar parks in the country this morning started to generate power for the national grid again as restrictions on the operation of clean energy facilities began to be lifted.

Renewables plants have not generated power for the Ukrainian grid since state-owned electricity transmission system operator Ukrenergo ordered them to be powered down on Thursday, for a three-day trial of running the grid in isolation from the power systems of Russia and Belarus.

That grid isolation exercise was part of a plan to eventually link the Ukrainian grid with the pan-European network overseen by EU body the European Network of Transmission System Operators for Electricity, a DTEK spokesperson said.

After the trial concluded, on Sunday, the Ukrainian Ministry of Energy decided to continue to operate the national grid in isolation mode, meaning renewables facilities in the nation had to remain powered down.

However, DTEK told pv magazine today that restriction has begun to be lifted, for the first time since Russia invaded the country a week ago, with the spokesperson stating: “As of the morning of March 1, DTEK RES [Renewables] solar power plants Trifonovskaya, Nikopolskaya, [and] Pokrovskaya [have begun] to gain load and supply electricity to the grid due to the gradual lifting of restrictions by NPC [National Power Company] Ukrenergo.”