Ship-based generators could bolster Ukraine’s damaged grid

As many as 1 million Ukrainians could soon receive their electricity via ship.

On Thursday morning, the state-owned electric trader JSC Energy Company of Ukraine signed a memorandum of understanding with Karpowership, a Turkish-owned operator of floating power plants. 

Karpowership’s floating generators are one potential means of helping Ukrainians weather damage to the electrical grid caused by escalating Russian missile attacks in recent months.

According to Karpowership, the company will provide Ukraine with up to 500 megawatts of electricity from ship-based generators. 

The floating power plants — located on ships that can burn liquified natural gas, fuel oil or biodiesel — will be anchored near the coast, likely in nearby Romania or Moldova, and connected to the grid through underwater cables. 

As Ukraine has regained territory occupied by Russia earlier in the war, Moscow has targeted and destroyed much of Ukraine’s electric infrastructure. Reuters reported that Russian missile attacks damaged virtually the entire Ukrainian electric grid last year. 

Ukraine’s military is able to shoot down most of Russia’s missile barrages. In an attack on Thursday morning, national air defense units shot down 47 out of 55 missiles, Reuters reported.

But the remaining eight missiles were enough to kill one Kyiv resident and damage the national grid amid sub-freezing temperatures. 

In the past few months, Ukraine has conducted controlled blackouts as it tries to weather the attacks on the energy grid.

One study of power supplies to 500 ATMs owned by one of Ukraine’s largest banks — machines that are always on as long as the grid is functional and keep precise records of when electricity is turned on and off — found that a single attack in November knocked out 55 percent of Ukrainian generating capacity. 

“The scale of destruction is colossal,” Volodymyr Kudrytskyi, the chief executive officer of the state-owned Ukrenergo, told Reuters in November. 

“And in Ukraine, there is a power generation deficit. We cannot generate as much energy as consumers can use.” 

The U.S. committed $53 million to support Ukraine’s electric grid in the December budget bill to pay for spare parts to repair this damage and additional money for surface-to-air missiles to deter future attacks, according to an official statement. 

Energy Department officials said the support “will help Ukraine rebuild the backbone of their power transmission system, which is critical and keeping the lights on and homes warm through the winter.”

Karpowership operates 36 of its Powership generators worldwide and boasts that it can deploy floating generators to shore up an overloaded grid in less than two months.