RE: No light, no life?

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nikv in #mywartimediary • 3 months ago

It's been bad on and off since 2008 and our society slowly adapted to life with batteries and everything important is now battery operated. We have also made a major transition to solar power, everyone who can afford the installation has done so. I also switched to cooking on gas long ago. The problem with generators, especially petrol ones, is how much they cost to run, it cripples business.

The past 2 1/2 years have been worst, where we had 8-12h of power cuts per day, similar to what you are experiencing. We are now in a situation where the state-run electricity company has been able to keep the lights on continuously for 3 months but some areas are still having rotational blackouts due to old and dilapidated infrastructure, where I live has its fair share of infrastructure problems but there is starting to be light at the end of this tunnel.

It's interesting watching Ukrainian society transform, I hope the same for my country. The ruling party that was in power for 30 years has finally lost it's majority but nobody know what will happen next.

3 months ago in #mywartimediary by nikv

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zirochka 3 months ago

I wish your situation will improve soon. But what was the cause, what happened in 2008? Don't you have enough power plants generating electricity or is there a problem with delivery/distribution? What do you use to generate electricity? You seem to have a large supply of coal if I'm not mistaken. We use it for generation. Although many of them are completely destroyed now ((

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nikv 3 months ago

Our power stations do run on coal but that's not the problem.

Electrical planners told the government in the 90s that due to population and economic growth and the limited lifespan of any power station, the country would have insufficient generation capacity by 2008 and that new power stations needed to be commissioned. They were ignored... In 2008, capacity did run out and then new power stations were commissioned, expected to be fully online in 2016.

Around 2009 a highly corrupt faction took control of the ruling party and state-owned electricity generation was the focus of their looting. The existing infrastructure wasn't maintained and the new power plants were actively sabotaged, so that our looters could do an amazingly corrupt nuclear power generation deal with Russia that would have bankrupted the country. ((Our ruling party also has long ties to USSR due to the cold war which caused many hot wars in Africa and somehow they think that Putin's Russia cares for them))
Finally, society woke up and started to fight back. The corrupt faction was partially removed and then the task was to fix it. Of course there was still plenty of sabotage and it has taken much longer than it should have. A large part of the reason why the ruling party lost power in May but where we go next is not clear.

Hopefully your rebuilding process in Ukraine goes for greener energy generation but it is going to be a long road. We also need to get away from coal in my country

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zirochka 3 months ago

Now I see... We have so much in common. Hold on there, it might be a long way but the society has to be active and keep an eye on whome they elected.

Ukraine has now a unique chance to build new instead of repairing old, in many branches of economy. But especially in energy generating and infrastructure. Hope our goverment don't mess it up.

Thank you so much for this conversation, @nikv !

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