Source: Energy & Management Powernews, March 18, 2022
The test for island operation of the Ukrainian power grid has now been directly followed by the connection to the European synchronous power grid.
The power grids of Ukraine and Moldova are fully synchronized with the continental European grid. Approval for this was granted by the European Association of Transmission System Operators Entso-E on March 11, 2022. Ukrainian power system operator Ukrenergo made the announcement on March 16. The physical operations to interconnect the power grids have been carried out, it said.
After an emergency synchronization request from Ukrenergo and Moldova, the transmission system operators of continental Europe had agreed to start trial synchronization of the continental European power system with the power grids of Ukraine and Moldova on March 16, 2022. The acceleration of the synchronization project, which has been underway since 2017, was possible thanks to previously conducted studies and risk mitigation measures, Entso-E announced. "This is a significant milestone for the continental European transmission system operators cooperating with Ukrenergo and Moldelectrica, which operate their respective power grids under extremely difficult circumstances," ENTSO-E added.
On February 24, Ukrenergo cut the connection to the synchronous grid interconnection of the Commonwealth of Independent States CIS and Baltic countries and started the coordinated and announced test to the isolated operation mode. As the war of aggression by Russian troops started at the same time, an urgent request to connect to the European synchronous interconnection was made instead of returning to the grid interconnection with Russia and Belarus.
By the end of 2021, Ukrenergo had informed Entso-E via a study that it was possible to synchronize Ukraine's transmission grid with the European grid interconnection. By 2023, according to this plan, the connection with Europe should be completed.
On the connection realized earlier, Volodymyr Kudrytskyi, Chairman of the Board of Ukrenergo, said, "This is a historic event, which today has become more than a guarantee for the development of the Ukrainian and European energy sector. This step gives Ukraine the opportunity to purchase electricity if the aggressor continues to destroy our electricity infrastructure. He thanked European partners for their support and underlined, "We have been preparing for this event for six years and were on the way to complete the last preparatory steps for synchronization when Russia's vicious attack suddenly thwarted our plans. Nevertheless, our power grid proved its resilience by continuously operating in an autonomous mode during Russia's military aggression."
After the war, the interconnection of power grids will open up opportunities to "develop the electricity market, switch to renewable energy sources and strengthen Europe's energy security," Kudrytskyi said.
Author: Josephine Bollinger-Kanne