Given the unprecedented scale of destruction inflicted by massive missile strikes, restoration work at DTEK Energy’s thermal power plants will continue throughout 2025 and beyond. This was announced by DTEK Energy CEO Oleksandr Fomenko during a press briefing at the Ministry of Energy on the performance of the 2024/2025 heating season.
According to Fomenko, DTEK Energy’s TPPs were hit by ten large-scale attacks prior to the start of the heating season, which caused devastating damage to equipment, buildings, and infrastructure. In total, 90% of the company’s generation capacity was damaged or destroyed. Thanks to the swift and coordinated efforts of DTEK Energy’s power engineers, more than half of the lost capacity was restored before the winter. However, renewed strikes in November and December 2024 inflicted significant damage on already repaired equipment.
Fomenko also recalled that, in addition to Luhansk and Zaporizhia TPPs, which were occupied in 2022, the company lost control of Kurakhove TPP due to active hostilities. Nevertheless, DTEK specialists were able to dismantle and relocate key equipment from Kurakhove TPP in time. This equipment is now being used to support operations at other thermal power plants and helped sustain their functionality during the autumn-winter period.
“Despite the unprecedented challenges, we did everything we could to prepare for and successfully navigate this heating season. Nearly 4,000 of our power engineers and repair crews were involved in emergency response and restoration work following the strikes. Thanks to their coordinated efforts, we’ve made it through three extremely difficult winters. But there’s no reason to believe the next one will be any easier. That’s why we’ve already begun preparations. The scale of destruction remains vast, so the recovery will continue throughout this year and well beyond,”
said Oleksandr Fomenko.
DTEK Energy CEO emphasised that above all, it is the people who make everything possible – thousands of power engineers who work tirelessly every day. He shared stories of plant and grid specialists who, despite coming under fire, put out fires, saved critical equipment, carried out repairs, and restored power to communities.
Since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion, 76 employees of DTEK Energy and DTEK Grids have been injured in the line of duty, and six have been killed.
Background
In 2024 alone, Russia launched 13 massive attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, heavily damaging DTEK Energy’s thermal generation facilities. Since the beginning of the full-scale war, the company’s plants have been targeted 205 times.
To prepare for and successfully get through the 2024/2025 heating season, DTEK Energy invested UAH 3.6 billion in restoring its TPPs and UAH 7.5 billion in domestic coal mining.
