DTEK miners are doing their best to keep up the coal production rates to bolster the sustainable operation of Ukrainian thermal power plants amid the war, DTEK Energy CEO Ildar Salieiev revealed after visiting a coal mine and an enrichment plant of DTEK Energy.
“The workload is enormous in the midst of the war: miners are set to start up 28 new longwalls this year. In simple terms, a longwall is where coal is mined. Coal can be extracted from a single longwall for 6-9 months. This means that when we open a longwall today, we are already planning to supply fuel to our TPPs in autumn and winter. Over the first five months of the year, 11 of them have already been put in operation. Two more will be opened in June,” he said.
According to Mr Salieiev, continuous upgrade and investment are needed to keep up the required coal production rates. Miners have recently prepared an overhauled and upgraded P-110 roadheader for lowering it underground.
“It has now an ultra-modern control system that is unparalleled in the company. In real time, it monitors and records the electrical and hydraulic parameters of the roadheader and dispatches this information to specialists. This makes the smart machine more reliable and will help miners work safely and efficiently,” Ildar Salieiev revealed.
He added that DTEK upgraded equipment at one of its enrichment plants to ship high-quality fuel to Ukrainian TPPs faster. The move will help speed up the coal enrichment into quality concentrate to be further used at thermal power plants. The large-scale UAH 64 million worth update lasted for four months.
“We keep working to strengthen the energy front for the upcoming heating season as much as possible,” said the CEO.
