How to prepare for a blackout? A Guide from Ukraine

We present to you the Guide "Ensuring of Backup Power During Wartime and Peacetime in Ukraine" (2023) authored by Vadym Lytvyn. This publication was prepared by the NGO "Association of Energy Auditors of Ukraine" in cooperation with the Representative Office of Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung in Ukraine.

Russian attacks on the energy system in Ukraine caused damage to the well-being of the population, reducing the reliability of electricity supply. Russian attacks on the Ukrainian energy industry led to the need to have a backup source of energy supply both at the level of infrastructure facilities and at the level of individual households and enterprises. Therefore, taking into account the experience of the severe winter of 2022/2023, this guide has been developed with advice to help ensure access to heat and electricity even in emergency conditions. The author not only provides important recommendations to individual consumers, but also describes examples of political decisions that will help make Ukraine's energy system more sustainable and less resource-intensive.

Effective use of backup sources will minimize current risks, and in the future - reduce the use of fossil fuels. Evaluating positive and negative practices in the field of energy consumption, the author of the Guide considers the most promising and safe backup sources to be cogeneration units (for heat supply facilities) and hybrid inverters with batteries (for private households and apartments). Such measures as the restoration of centralized hot water supply in Ukrainian cities will allow to balance the electricity supply system and increase the reliability of hot water supply.

The information is structured in the Guide based on the level of energy system operation (generation, distribution, consumption) and on the main consumers of energy resources: apartment buildings, private houses, public sector institutions, critical infrastructure facilities.

We recommend reading this publication to everyone who wants to understand the functioning of the energy system in critical times and make a personal contribution to building a more sustainable society.