Vitaliy Shaida: why we cannot go without scheduled maintenance and how to find out about an outage in advance

Thermal power generation19 November 2021

DTEK Kyiv Regional Grids upgrades power facilities, does maintenances, repairs power grids and transformer substations every day to improve the power supply to customers. The power is off during the scheduled work, and the outage time depends on the repair complexity. The head of the company underlined this during a live stream with customers as part of the #AskAboutTheLight project held on the company's official Facebook page.

Vitaliy Shaida: why we cannot go without scheduled maintenance and how to find out about an outage in advance

The length of overhead power transmission lines served by DTEK Kyiv Regional Power Grids is more than 50,000 kilometers. Like any technique or mechanism, electrical networks and electrical equipment need maintenance, replacement of certain parts, repair, or overhaul to ensure that power supply to customers is reliable and there are no failures. During such maintenances, the company turns off the power supply to ensure that the energy workers are safe.

“DTEK strives to become the standard of customer focus. We understand that most of our customers work from home because of pandemic restrictions. Therefore, it is crucial for them to have electricity. However, if we do not do the maintenance, then we will not be able to prevent failures. So, it is better to put up with some inconvenience for several hours, rather than have longer blackout later because of a failure. Customers can get ready for planned outages in advance and plan their day. To do this, you need to check information about outages using our remote services,” says Vitaliy Shaida, Head of DTEK Kyiv Regional Grids.

When drafting a shutdown plan, the company adds some time in case of unforeseen situations. The actual power cut time may vary, depending on the work complexity and other technical factors that cannot be predicted. If the work is completed earlier, then the power will be recovered immediately. The energy workers try to complete the planned work as soon as possible and return the power to the residents. After all, they understand that any power outage, even a short one, entails an inconvenience to customers.

You can find the maintenance schedule on the DTEK Kyiv Regional Grids website in the Scheduled Outages section.

Moreover, you can find a list of scheduled outages or report a failure in a convenient way: through the Merezhi Online mobile application (available in the AppStore and Google Play Market), the Viber and Telegram chatbot, or DM on the DTEK Kyiv Regional Grids page in Facebook.

During the live stream, Vitaliy Shaida answered the question from people of the region why DTEK Kyiv Regional Grids turns power off routinely.

See a full video recording of #AskAboutTheLight here.