Russia has launched more than 700 missiles and drones into the Ukrainian energy system. The attacks damaged half of the high-voltage substations. Ukrenergo and oblenergo use concrete blocks and sandbags to protect expensive equipment from rocket debris. However, this does not help against direct hits. The Ministry of Transport and Ukrenergo are working on projects for two bunker substations. How much will it help protect against Russian terror and how much will it cost?
On February 10, Russia fired 71 rockets into Ukraine . It was the 14th massive missile strike, and the night before was the 16th drone attack, according to Ukrenergo. Russian missiles hit thermal and hydroelectric power plants, as well as high-voltage infrastructure in six regions, Energy Minister German Galushchenko wrote on Facebook.
There are 90 main substations in Ukraine, occupying from 10 to 45 hectares, and tens of thousands less. Russia’s goal is precisely large substations, of which half have already been damaged, according to Prime Minister Denys Shmygal.
Ukrenergo refused to answer Forbes questions about how to protect high-voltage substations from Russian shelling. “This information is completely closed,” the press service of the state-owned company replied. DTEK Rinat Akhmetov , who owns oblenergos in Kiev, Odessa, Dnepropetrovsk, Donetsk regions and Kiev, also does not want to talk about protecting distribution substations for security reasons.
VS Energy , which distributes about 10% of the country’s electricity through its five oblenergos, protects substations with concrete blocks or large sandbags in case rocket debris hits them, COO Vladimir Getmanov tells Forbes. “Sometimes it looks funny, but it really helps a lot from debris,” says Alexander Kharchenko, director of the Energy Research Center.
But Ukraine needs to protect transformers not only from debris, but also from a direct hit by missiles.
The Unbeaten Path of Protecting Power Equipment
It never occurred to anyone to hide the energy infrastructure from military aggression, Yury Kasich, director of the United Energy Standard company, who headed Ukrenergo in 2014-2015, tells Forbes. Ukraine will become an innovator in substation protection, says Kharchenko.
The Ministry of Communities, Territories and Infrastructure Development, together with Ukrenergo, is implementing a pilot project to build two 330 kV and 750 kV main substations protected from missile and drone attacks, an official from the Ukrainian energy industry familiar with the situation tells Forbes on condition of anonymity.
It is about placing key equipment in special bunkers, he adds. At the time of publication of the article, the relevant ministry did not respond to a request from Forbes.
What is the advantage of bunkering the most important substation equipment? This is the only way to completely protect the devices from direct missile hits, Kharchenko says. The main disadvantage is the price.
The cost of building a ground-based substation in 2021 was about $30 million, Kasich recalls. Underground substations are 20-25% more expensive, he says. That is, more than $3 billion is needed to protect all 90 substations.
There is no exact estimate of the cost of building an underground substation, Kharchenko says. “We are talking about tens of millions of dollars of added value for each high-voltage transformer substation,” he says. Given this, the most important of the 90 will be selected for placement underground, he adds.
It is necessary not only to dig a pit, but also to ensure its waterproofing and good ventilation so that high-voltage equipment works correctly, Kharchenko explains. The underground storage would have to be large: a high-voltage transformer could be up to 15 meters high, and strong enough to withstand a missile strike.
A separate challenge is to provide isolation. In Europe, SF6 is used for this , says Kasich. It is heavier than air and less electrically conductive, so it can reduce the area of substations by 4–5 times. This technology has enabled the construction of underground substations in Europe to make better use of expensive land and aesthetics, he says. At the same time, European underground substations are not designed to withstand missiles.
The first two pilot underground substations can be built in Ukraine by the 2023-2024 heating season, and a complete restructuring will require at least 3-5 years, Kharchenko predicts. “Now the task is to build two protected substations as quickly as possible,” confirms an official from the energy industry.
source: forbes
