Crimea will be able to receive about 300 MW of electricity from Russia's Southern Federal District by the beginning of 2016 thanks to the laying of an underwater cable across Kerch Strait and construction of onshore power grid infrastructure, Russia's Energy Ministry told Interfax.
“Taking into account its own generation and mobile gas turbine power plants, in principle this will be enough to cover the basic demand of Crimean consumers,” the ministry said.
The amount of electricity transmitted could increase to 850 MW by the end of 2016, once the second phase of construction is completed. The ministry believes this will cover existing demand on the Black Sea peninsula and eliminate the problem of summer and winter peaks in consumption.
“In that case it will already be possible to talk about the independence of energy supplies to the Crimean Federal District from electricity supplies from Ukraine,” the ministry said.
