SIMFEROPOL, December 3. /TASS/. After the launch of an energy bridge from mainland Russia to Crimea the republic can quickly emerge from the crisis caused by a major blackout after key supply pylons were damaged by Ukrainian radicals, the republic’s Supreme Council speaker, Vladimir Konstantinov, told TASS on Thursday.
"It won’t be difficult for us to get out of this situation, this process will not take long. Restoration will proceed rather quickly," the top parliamentarian said, noting that he believed the situation could be fully stabilized by the end of the year.
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"We will get to the former level in the housing sector, which means that no Crimean residents will be seeing rotating blackouts. Everything will be operating in the social sphere - schools, kindergartens, clinics," Konstantinov added.
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday launched the first stage of the energy bridge from the southern Krasnodar region to Crimea at the Krymenergo Company’s building. Crimea received the first 100 megawatt, and shortly the capacity will grow by another 100 MW, covering about one fourth of electric power demand. On the whole, generation will grow on the peninsula to 700 MW, ensuring slightly more than half the peninsula’s demand.
"The bridge gave us the first megawatts, and we are now thinking what to do next," he continued. He said legislators were facing new tasks, as in the situation did not fit within the Russian legislation. "The law on emergency situations does not envisage the situation in which the whole region would find itself under an intentional attack," he explained.
Crimea received electricity supply from Ukraine’s Kherson region via four power transmission lines. On November 22, all four were damaged by Ukrainian radicals, cutting the peninsula's current.
This has forced Crimea to rely on generators. Authorities declared a state of emergency and introduced a schedule of rotating blackouts.
Work is in full swing to launch the energy bridge from mainland Russia to Crimea along the Kerch Strait seabed to have electric restored by the New Year holidays.
Heating has already been returned to more than half the peninsula's multi-storey apartment houses, the republic’s government reports on its website, specifying that as of Tuesday, this is 747 houses or 52% of all apartment blocks there. Work to launch the heating season in full is to be finished by December 7.