Twenty-five employees of DTEK Odesa Electric Networks were awarded for their involvement in urgent restoration work in the Kherson region. The energy workers managed to restore electricity to over a thousand families affected by shelling in February this year. The acknowledgments from the Ministry of Energy of Ukraine confirmed the professionalism of the specialists who worked in hazardous conditions.
This information was provided by DTEK Odesa Electric Networks, with the awards ceremony conducted by the Ministry of Energy of Ukraine. Awards were given to specialists from various fields who participated in the crucial mission of restoring energy infrastructure in a dangerous area.
An emergency situation arose in February when Russian shelling damaged the energy equipment in one of Kherson's districts. Odesa energy workers responded immediately to their colleagues' requests and worked in extreme conditions from mid-March to mid-April. Specialists restored infrastructure just a few kilometers from the front line, in complicated terrain with impassable roads.
"When we received the call for help, we didn’t hesitate for a moment. The work was challenging and dangerous, but we knew we were doing it for the people," commented Dmytro Hryhoriev, the Director General of DTEK Odesa Electric Networks.
Thanks to the joint efforts of Odesa crews and local energy workers, light and water were returned to residents after nearly three months of outages. This operation demonstrated the high level of professionalism of Ukrainian energy workers and their willingness to take risks to restore critical infrastructure in wartime. The awards ceremony was an important recognition of the heroism of energy sector workers.
Among the awarded specialists:
- Ivan Petrov,
- Serhii Kovalenko,
- Anatolii Melnyk,
- Oleksandr Sydorenko (relay protection center)
- Oleh Diakiv,
- Vitalii Solovyi,
- Dmytro Moroz (substation repair center)
- Stanislav Boiko,
- Hennadii Kostenko,
- Mykola Levchenko (insulation and protection center)
- Volodymyr Fedorov,
- Olexii Chornobai (line repair center)
- Yurii Kryvenko,
- Ihor Stanislavskyi,
- Denys Kravchenko (transport operation)
Meanwhile, Odesa region has been listed among the eleven Ukrainian regions that may face electricity shortages during the summer, as stated by Oleg Popenko, head of the Utility Consumers Union. The at-risk areas also include Kyiv, Mykolaiv, Kherson, Zaporizhia, Kharkiv, Sumy, Chernihiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Kirovohrad, and Poltava regions. Due to Russian shelling, the energy system is frequently unable to provide sufficient electricity generation during peak loads in hot weather, so electricity supply to businesses will be limited first, while residential consumers will receive electricity on a residual basis, although DTEK has not yet provided official comments regarding possible outages.
