On 31 March, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev paid a surprise visit to Crimea where he vowed to quickly pour funds into the peninsula. In the most senior Russian official to visit since Crimea was annexed from Ukraine, Medvedev said Russia will work on long-term solutions to ensure a stable power supply to Crimea by linking the region to Russia’s power grid or developing local power generation.
Uralsib Senior Utilities Analyst Matvey Taits told New Europe on 31 March that the main power connections are through Ukraine.
Crimea currently gets about 80% of its electricity and a similar share of its water from Ukraine, and power cutoffs last week raised fears that the Ukrainian government could use energy to pressure Russia.
“I don’t know all details about these disruptions but they [the Ukrainians] explained them by some technical issues. In fact I think it might be related to some subsidies – to the prices – which they are not ready to provide any more,” Taits said.
Crimea receives 1.2 gigawatts, the bulk of its electrical power, from Ukraine’s electrical grid at subsidised prices.
The Moscow-based analyst said that “Russia will probably provide some new capacity for this peninsula”.
In fact, Medvedev, who led a delegation of Cabinet ministers to Crimea, said on 31 March that Russia already has made sure that the peninsula has enough backup power capacity to ensure an uninterrupted electricity supply.
But Taits warned that solving Crimea’s energy problems would take time. He said the only short-term solution is to bring some mobile turbines that they have in Sochi. Thestations were originally set up as backup for possible grid overloads during the Olympic and Paralymic Games, though thepower was reportedly not needed.
Earlier in March, Russia announced plans to ship nine mobile power stations fromSochi toCrimea. The 150-tonne power stations would be brought to Ukraine’s southern peninsula either by sea or inheavy cargo planes from the aviation transport company Volga-Dnieper. The gas-powered stations that Russia intends to send have a total capacity of 202.5 megawatts and will add to 200 megawatts of capacity from regional solar power stations.
Taits told New Europe that there are also a number of long-term scenarios discussed in order to solve Crimea’s energy crisis. “There is a cable line which will be part of this bridge project,” he said, referring to plans to build a car and rail bridge linking Russia directly with the Crimea region. There are also discussing to construct power plants in Crimea with 900-1000 megawatts ofcapacity. Taits said more natural gas would also be needed to operate these plants so “probably some more gas pipelines are also possible”.