Under fire for the sake of light: energy workers of DTEK Grids DSO restored more than 16,500 km of lines during the two years of full-scale war

Thermal power generation24 February 2024

For two years of full-scale war energy workers of the DTEK Grids Distribution System Operators have been tirelessly repairing the grids that keep suffering damage due to constant enemy attacks. During this time, DSO specialists have restored over 16,500 kilometers of power lines of various voltage class. Energy workers’ main objective is to do everything possible to provide electricity to the homes of Ukrainians despite the war.

Overhead power lines are the ones most often destroyed by shelling. They suffer from direct hits, falling of fragments of projectiles and drones. Energy workers had to repair some of them on dozens of occasions. In particular, there is a “record holder” line in the Donetsk region on one of the hottest directions, which has been shelled on a weekly basis for the past two years – it was repaired 97 times.

“For two years now, our energy workers have been working in the conditions of increased danger and repairing grids, destroyed due to shelling and hostilities, often to the sounds of explosions or near the mine fields. Since the beginning of the full-scale rf’s invasion, our specialists have repaired 5,600 damaged power facilities in Kyiv, Odesa, Dnipropetrovsk and Donetsk regions and in the capital. We have restored operation of 16,500 kilometers of power lines of various voltage class. Nearly 1,000 crews of energy workers are working daily to ensure stable operation of the energy system. We are doing everything possible to provide Ukrainians with electricity even in the conditions of constant attacks on the energy system,” – noted DTEK Grids CEO Oleksandr Fomenko.

In 2023, despite continuation of active hostilities in the Donetsk region, energy workers were able to restore electricity to more than 20 de-occupied settlements of Lyman and Sviatohirsk urban communities. Specialists of four DTEK Grids DSO from Donetsk, Odesa, Dnipropetrovsk and Kyiv regions joined efforts and together restored more than 370 kilometers of destroyed power lines.

Energy workers have also conducted large-scale restorations in the Dnipropetrovsk region. In June and August 2023 in particular, two 150 kV lines were heavily damaged after guided missiles attacks on Kryvyi Rih. Specialists of DTEK Dnipro Grids worked 24/7 to restore electricity to all families as soon as possible. They managed to repair all lines in three days. Over the two years of full-scale war, they managed to restore operation of almost 550 power facilities in this region.

Since February 24, 2022, energy workers have restored electricity to homes of more than 11 mln* families in Kyiv, Odesa, Donetsk and Dnipropetrovsk regions.

Unfortunately, during the two years of full-scale invasion, 1 energy worker of DTEK Kyiv Regional Grids was killed while restoring electricity to the Ukrainians, another 14 employees of DTEK Distribution System Operators were wounded.

*considering that some customers had electricity restored to them on 2 or more occasions.