Ukraine to repair massive Trypilska power plant before Centrenergo sale

Ukraine intends to repair the large state-owned Trypilska ‌thermal ​power plant near Kyiv after Russian airstrikes and prepare its parent company, Centrenergo, for privatisation next year, the head of the State Property Fund said on Thursday.

Ukraine intends to repair the large state-owned Trypilska ‌thermal ​power plant near Kyiv after Russian airstrikes and prepare its parent company, Centrenergo, for privatisation next year, the head of the State Property Fund said on Thursday. Since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine ‌in 2022, it has repeatedly targeted Ukraine's energy system with missile and drone strikes, hitting both power plants and substations that deliver electricity to consumers.

Ukrainian officials have said that all the country's thermal power plants have been attacked, with up to 80% of thermal generation capacity lost. Dmytro Natalukha, chairman of the ‌State Property Fund, which manages all of Ukraine's state assets, told Reuters that the fund intends to proceed with the privatisation of Centrenergo, but ‌that this would first require restoring the Trypilska plant.

He said three processes were under way in parallel and should be completed as early as 2027: preparing the plant for the next heating season, restoring the plant itself, and drafting documents for a future tender. "We have several issues to solve at the same time, and none of them are ⁠easy," Natalukha ​said.

The war remains the main obstacle ⁠to implementing the ambitious project, as Russia intensifies attacks on energy facilities in winter, often destroying what was restored in summer. PRIVATISATION

The war context makes any privatisation unlikely to succeed, independent energy ⁠analyst Mykhailo Honchar said. "No one will invest in restoring or building new capacity knowing that it could be destroyed at any moment," he said.

Trypilska, which ​supplies electricity to Kyiv and the surrounding region, was critically damaged by Russian air strikes in spring 2024 and has virtually ceased ⁠generation since. It has capacity of 1.8 gigawatts, roughly equivalent to two nuclear reactors, and Natalukha said it is considered a high-risk target for Russian attacks. Part of the roof over the vast ⁠facility ​is missing, while inside dozens of workers are trying to bring back to life the massive, blackened turbines, boilers and pipelines.

Trypilska is one of three power plants owned by Centrenergo. The other two, Vuhlehirska and Zmiivska, are in eastern Ukraine. Vuhlehirska was occupied early in the war, ⁠while Zmiivska was critically damaged in attacks in 2024. "I think that next year we will try to reach some kind of understanding (on the privatisation ⁠timeline) - it will depend on how ⁠we get through the winter," Natalukha said. He added he could not yet estimate the cost of restoring the plant or give a timeframe for resuming operations, and provided no further details on the privatisation process.

Major European ‌and U.S. energy ‌companies could be interested in the privatisation of Centrenergo, he said.