Public joint-stock company Centrenergo has decided not to buy coal from DTEK energy holding anymore, Head of the Independent Trade Union of Miners of Ukraine Mykhailo Volynets has said.
“In 2016, Centrenergo demanded from DTEK to increase its production volumes to 250,000 tonnes per month, which is 3 million tonnes of coal per year, and now they have abandoned this coal,” he wrote on his Facebook page.
According to Volynets, the situation is complicated by the fact that Centrenergo postponed the launch of one of the units of the Trypilska thermal power plant (TPP) after switching to gas coal from December 2017 to March 2018.
“This [launch of the unit] would increase the consumption of Ukrainian coal by 60,000-90,000 tonnes per month, but they [Centrenergo] were delayed it and moved to March 2018,” he said.
The head of the trade union said that the current situation jeopardizes the stable work of the state-owned coalmines in the western region of the country.
Ukrainian Energy and Coal Industry Minister Ihor Nasalyk said in parliament on January 19 that at present Ukraine faces surplus of coal.
