Candlelight Talk About Reform "Successes"

The first paradox is that the power industry is being used to the advantage of persons (or entities) other than those generating, transmitting, and allocating all this energy. Here money revenues are accumulated not along the logical power-station-National-Dispatch-Center-regional-heating-companies-consumer chain, but somewhere in between its links where countless intermediaries are busy stuffing their pockets. These intermediaries use several principal techniques, trading in highly (and not very highly) liquid products received under barter deals in return for electricity supplies; negotiating consumers' and distributors' bonds of obligation in return for generating companies' cut rates - actually, there must be as many techniques as there are smart operators. This business remains the most rewarding in Ukraine; small joint stock companies and limited liability partnerships are calmly manipulating hundreds of millions of dollars. And access is rigidly controlled by authorities.

Another aspect of this paradox is that an industry considered the most profitable one all over the world must ask the state for handouts. Last week, when discussing Parliament's resolution On Urgent Measures to Stabilize the Fuel-and-Energy Sector, the pressing need to make budget injections was stressed by the Energy Minister and a number of acknowledged experts in the field. "Non-allocation of such funds may result in tragedy." This is a real threat. At present, the aging ratio at the generating facilities amounts to 30-40%, mostly at thermal power stations that are two-three times older than the nuclear ones and have never basked in such nationwide esteem.

The following aspect of this paradox is that the country with Chornobyl, whose Parliament, ruled by a majority of voters eage to eventually wipe nuclear power engineering off the face of the earth, has turned out completely dependent on this very hazardous industry. The question is what role Ukraine's nuclear power units play. Do they threaten Ukraine's very existence or should be they regarded as a guarantee that its energy system will become stable? No one can answer, not at the present stage. One thing is clear: while the thermal power stations, being so ruthlessly exploited, will die a quiet death, the nuclear ones will go out with a bang hazardous to everyone's health.

There are many aspects to this paradox, just as there are ways to correct it. Apparently, a revolutionary situation has developed in the Ukrainian power industry. Except that not people but equipment will rebel against the barbarian exploitation and the "revolution" will cost Ukraine as much as the one bringing the Bolsheviks to power did, if not more.

FROM THE DAY'S FILES

Before 1991, Ukraine's power industry was developed as part of the USSR power grid. Ukraine's total generating capacity was estimated at 54,600,000 megawatts, with a yearly output of 300 billion kWh; approximately one-tenth of this energy was exported. By and large, its energy system was self-sufficient even during Soviet times, although certain regions registered a misbalance of generating and consuming capacities - e.g., Kharkivenerho, uniting Kharkiv, Sumy, and Poltava oblasts - but lack of energy was made up for by supplies from Russia. In contrast, the Donbasenerho and Dniproenerho systems had excess generating capacities, supplying electricity to Russia and Ukraine's central and southern territories. The worst shortcoming of the national energy system is the lack of maneuverable capacities, constituting 9% (e.g., the Dnipro hydropower chain). Nuclear power capacities cannot be maneuvered and to secure their stable performance their share in the nationwide output had to be raised from 27% (in the USSR) to 49%. Using thermal power stations for such maneuvering resulted in a tangible drop in their technical and economic indices due to wear and tear and lower profitability. Average fuel consumption has increased by 40% over the past eight years, with the capacity utilization factor dropping by 43.4%. Finally, as under Soviet rule, Ukraine has no rational energy use policy, even in terms of energy conservation, let alone a systematic approach to the extraction of energy resources and power consumption.