Friday blackouts in Ukraine to start 4 hours earlier than planned

MOSCOW. June 14 (Interfax) - The Ukrenergo power grid operator has moved forward the start of scheduled hourly blackouts in Ukraine from 6:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. on Friday, Ukrainian media said, citing regional distribution system operators.

"Ukrenergo has changed the period of scheduled hourly blackouts: i.e. they will be in effect from 2:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. today," the Poltava region's distribution system operator said on social media.

"The period of scheduled hourly outages today has been changed. They start at 2:00 p.m.," the Nikolayev region's distribution system operator said.

Ukrenergo explained rescheduling of the start of the use of the schedule of hourly power cuts from 6 p.m.to 2 p.m. on Friday by the growth of consumption in the eastern regions and the decline in the productivity of solar power plants in the western regions.

"Today, the schedules of hourly power cuts will be used from 2 p.m. to 10 p.m. The cause is an increased consumption in the eastern regions and a declining performance of solar power plants in the western regions," media outlets quoted Ukrenergo as saying on social networks.

As reported, Ukrenergo initially announced planned blackouts from 6:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. on Friday.