Page 66 - UKRRptMay21

9.1.9 Utilities sector news
As temperatures increase, solar and wind electricity production increase, but electricity consumption decreases, warned Ukrenergo. During the week of April 5-11, renewable production increased by 17% to 227mn kW, but electricity consumption decreased by 1%, to 2.86bn kWh. Going into the high production season for renewables, Ukrenergo’s Guaranteed Buyer owes an estimated $750mn to solar and wind power producers.
On the 35th anniversary of the Chornobyl nuclear fire, President Zelenskiy yesterday inaugurated a €448mn nuclear waste repository. Located near the shuttered nuclear power plant, the unit is “the largest dry spent fuel storage facility in the world” according to the EBRD which coordinated donation from OECD countries. Designed to last 100 years, the facility is to package in double-walled canisters and store in concrete the 21,000 spent fuel assemblies of Chornobyl reactors 1, 2 and 3. The repository comes after international donors spent €2bn to build the new sarcophagus that entombs the highly contaminated remains of reactor 4. Rafael Mariano Grossi, Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency, yesterday said on Twitter that his agency “will continue working tirelessly in addressing decommissioning, radioactive waste and environmental remediation related with Chernobyl accident.”
9.1.10 Renewables sector news
London-based VR Capital is investing €75mn to buy three wind power plants with a total design capacity of 49.5 MW in Odesa’s Bessarabia region. The seller, Metropoliya Group, is to continue technical support of the projects until they enter commercial operation next year, VR Capital said Thursday. In addition, VR’s Elementum Energy Ukraine is building a 100 MW wind farm in a different part of the Odesa region. Elementum owns 28 solar stations with a total capacity of 536 MW.
Qatar’s state-owned Nebras Power signed an agreement with UDP Renewables to invest in Ukrainian solar plants which are planned for construction by the end of 2022. At the end of the investment cycle, Nebras will become owner of a controlling stake in the plants.
9.1.11 Metallurgy & mining sector news
The World Steel Association (WSA, formerly IISI) has published its Short Range Outlook for 2021-22, forecasting Chinese steel demand to grow 3% YoY in 2021 and 1% YoY in 2022.
Due to the low number of capacity closures, steel demand in Russia was down only 3% YoY in 2020 and is expected to grow 3% YoY in 2021-22.
The World Steel Association (WSA, formerly IISI) has published its Short Range Outlook for 2021-22. Global steel demand in 2021 is set to grow 5.8% YoY thanks to the post-COVID-19 recovery before normalizing to a growth of 2.7% YoY in 2022. Commenting on steel demand trends in 2020, WSA noted that while demand in China recovered promptly (+9.1% YoY), the rest of the world saw demand
66 UKRAINE Country Report May 2021 www.intellinews.com