The Energy Ministry of Russia is to start temporary electricity shutoffs in the south part of the Russian-occupied Crimean peninsula, the Interfax.ru news agency reported on Aug.6.
The agency cited an unnamed source in the Energy Ministry saying Russian government was forced to start the power shutoffs on the south coast of Crimea from Aug.6 because of the Simferopol-Yalta electricity grid overload.
The temperature on the Crimean south coast hit the 38-40 degrees Celsius and the local residents have actively used air conditioning, thus causing extra strain to the peninsula’s already overloaded electric networks.
In 2017 Crimea already consumed 1280 Mega Watts of electricity, with only a third being generated locally. The rest of the electricity consumed in the occupied peninsula comes from the so-called
Crimean Energy bridge from the Krasnodar Kray in Russia.
Earlier, local officials were upbeat about supposedly solving all the energy problems that that Crimea could potentially face. In January 2016, Mikhail Sheremet, the so-called “first deputy prime minister” of the Russian–occupied Crimea told RIA Novosti news website that the peninsula has “refused to consume the electricity supplies from Ukraine”.
“Crimea can satisfy consumers’ demand for electricity using its own capacities and the electricity supplies from Russia,” he added.
Ukraine stopped electricity supplies to the Russian-occupied peninsula in December 2015. It happened after the radical activists launched the blockade of the electricity towers in Kherson Oblast that were blown up in November 2015, leaving more than 1 million residents of Crimea in a blackout for several days.
