Two substations damaged in Enerhodar
The city was left without electricity for 16 hours over the weekend.
Image for illustration purposes.
Ukraine, Kyiv: In the past few days, two substations were damaged in Enerhodar, where most of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) staff live. This was announced in a report on the website of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). The city was left without electricity for 16 hours over the weekend after a second sub-station in the area sustained damage and was taken out of operation.
The IAEA experts stationed at the ZNPP visited the site of the latest affected substation, Raduga, to observe damage to one of its two transformers that the plant said was caused by a drone attack the previous evening. The substation was used to partially supply five districts of Enerhodar with electricity. The other destroyed substation is Luch. IAEA experts saw electric components and other drone debris at the Raduga substation, as well as an unexploded device on the ground near the damaged.
Russian representatives at the site said that a hole in the transformer had caused a cooling oil leak that prompted the sub-station to shut down, adding that the oil spill had been covered by sand and that repairs were under way. The IAEA experts did not see any oil traces on the transformer itself. The substation appeared to have suffered less damage than the transformer at the Luch substation and there was no fire or firefighters in the area.
The loss of electricity from Raduga did not directly impact the two power lines that are still available for the ZNPP. The plant continues to receive the off-site electricity for the cooling of its shutdown reactors from its last remaining 750 kV main power line and the last 330 kV backup power line.
Source: Ukrinform