Companies suspend operation in Crimea

SIMFEROPOL, November 25. /TASS/. Authorities in Simferopol suspended on Wednesday the work of 13 major local industrial enterprises. Children at schools and kindergartens have been sent on unscheduled holidays until November 30. The corresponding information is posted on the official website of the city administration.

In particular, trolleybuses are not running on Wednesday — the Krymtrolleybus company that consumes 18 megawatts form the total 82 megawatts of power supplied to Simferopol has been temporarily closed. Also, the Simferopol mechanical, machine building and electrical engineering plants, Simferopol Brewery and Non-alcoholic Beverages Factory and a local defence plant are not working. Almost all of them are strategic enterprises and the major taxpayers to the Crimean budget.

Russian Emergency Situations Minister Vladimir Puchkov said on Tuesday that a number of organizations in Crimea would be disconnected from the power grid for saving electricity.

Crimean authorities are developing measures to save power due to the termination of energy crossflows from Ukraine.

Situation with electricity in Crimea

The state of emergency is in effect in Crimea since November 22, after the cessation of electricity supply from Ukraine due to blowing up of power transmission line towers there. The restoration of one of the damaged powerlines — Kakhovskaya-Titan (220 kW) has been launched. Spokesman for the Ukrainian Ukrenergo power utility company Zinovy Butsyo told TASS that according to preliminary estimates, the main works might be completed by Wednesday night.

On Monday, Ukraine’s Energy Ministry said it hoped that Russia would regard the blowing up of power transmission towers in Ukraine’s Kherson region as force majeure and will not charge penalties. Ukraine’s Minister of Energy and Coal Industry Volodymyr Demchyshyn told a briefing, "I think it’s going to be force majeure. Let us wait and see what kind of decision will be made," Demchishin added. He admitted that the supports of electric power lines, including those running to Crimea, had been blown up in Ukraine’s Kherson region, and that his ministry did not have access to the damaged structures to repair them.

Crimea was left without energy on the night to November 22 after the towers of powerlines leading to the peninsula had been blown up. All major cities in Crimea are receiving energy. But the lack of locally generated power on the peninsula may cause rolling blackouts and water cuts to households. All socially important facilities have been connected to reserve power supply sources.

Crimea’s needs in electric energy are met by 30%; all socially important facilities are operating normally, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Kozak told journalists. "The situation in Crimea is difficult but not critical," Kozak said. "Locally generated electric energy meets the peninsula’s needs by 30%; all socially important facilities, the airport and transport infrastructure facilities are operating normally," the deputy prime minister said. He added that the Russian authorities would step up the construction of a power transmission line via the Kerch Strait.

"The problem of energy supplies to Crimea will become less acute by mid-December. The government is considering a possibility to step up the construction of an energy bridge (from mainland Russia to the peninsula)," Kozak said. According to him, all life-sustaining facilities in Crimea will work to full capacity in 2016 though rolling power cuts will be possible in houses and apartment buildings. The energy bridge to Crimea project provides for the construction of a power transmission line from the Rostov nuclear power plant in southern Russia to Crimea’s capital Simferopol with one of its sections running through the bottom of the Kerch Strait. Its transmission capacity is to reach 300 MW at the start of 2016.