DTEK Renewables restores power to war-damaged Ukraine solar plant

DTEK Renewables has restored the Niko Solar power plant in the Mykolaiv region of Ukraine after 90% of the generating equipment was damaged by Russian shelling.

Since the war in Ukraine began, DTEK Renewables has had to acquire expertise in restoring renewable facilities that have been damaged or destroyed by military operations.

In October 2022, DTEK Renewables specialists restored the damaged Trifonivskaya solar plant in a few weeks and later repaired it to 100% capacity.

DTEK Renewables chief executive Oleksandr Selishchev said: "Green energy is the key to Ukraine's energy security. Therefore, we did not hesitate to join the restoration of our colleagues' solar plant so that the region would once again have such important megawatts of distributed generation."

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DTEK Renewables workers lived and worked near the plant while repairing it. They had to replace equipment, calibrate solar panels, reassemble them, perform connection and adjustment and install an automated control system to achieve the highest possible level of solar generation.

Kostyantyn Styopin, manager of technical supervision and facility commissioning, said the damage to the station "was significant, augmented by fires due to short circuits".

"About 20 people worked on the project every day. All power equipment had to be handled manually, making it a difficult and time-consuming job."

As a result, the DTEK Renewables team restored 3MW - about 60% - of the generating capacity of the plant in 40 days, and it is already generating electricity for the region again.