For the sake of "energy independence" Ukraine will risk the economy

Sergey Kondratiev, Deputy Head of the Economic Department of the Institute for Energy and Finance, commented to the Sputnik Belarus radio station on the possible exit of the Ukrainian energy system from the mode of synchronous operation with the UES/UPS power system.

Ukraine has announced the country's "disconnection" from the Russian and Belarusian energy systems by the end of 2023. In order to achieve "energy independence" from Russia and Belarus and to connect the Ukrainian energy system to the European one, the state-owned company Ukrenergo, in the summer of 2017, signed an agreement with the European Network of Electricity Transmission System Operators, which unites companies from 36 countries (ENTSO-E).

“From a purely technological point of view, it is possible to switch to isolated operation by the end of 2023 – it is completely irrational from an economic point of view, but it is possible,” Sergei Kondratiev, senior expert at the Russian Institute for Energy and Finance, says. “However, I am not sure that European countries will be ready to the accession of Ukraine. If after the accession in the country there is a blackout or a large-scale power outage, which often occurs in the post-Soviet space, this could seriously destabilize the operation of neighboring energy systems - Poland, Hungary, Romania, Slovakia. "

As another important point Kondratiev calls the problem of Donbass - if Ukraine is integrated into the European system, then the territories uncontrolled by Kiev in the east of the country will be not integrated. "Thus, two power systems will function, which will become a dividing factor," he concluded.