Crimea faces months without power rather than be defined as part of Ukraine

[newthinking]

Source: The Telegraph

Vladimir Putin asked Crimeans to choose between months of blackouts and signing an electricity contract that says the region is still part of Ukraine.


People play chess holding a torch near Nakhimov's Square in Sevastopol, Crimea Photo: AP

Residents of Crimea are facing several more months of blackouts after being asked to choose between energy shortages or signing an electricity supply contract that defines the peninsula as part of Ukraine.

The peninsular, which was annexed by Russia in 2014, has been in a state of emergency since an “energy blockade” by Ukrainian activists left nearly two million people without power in November.

The survey consisted of two questions: “Do you or do you not support signing a commercial contract with Ukraine for delivery of electricity to Crimea and Sevastopol, if it says that Crimea and Sevastopol is part of Ukraine?”

The second question was: “are you prepared to endure temporary difficulties connected with minor interruptions in the energy supply over the next three to four months?”

Read more: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/russia/12077725/Crimea-faces-months-without-power-rather-than-be-defined-as-part-of-Ukraine.html

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Crimeans vote to give up electricity contract with Ukraine even if it means more power cut-offs

https://www.rt.com/politics/327673-crimea-vote-contract-ukraine/


Headlights exposing residents of Simferopol crossing a motor road. © Maks Vetrov / Sputnik

About 2,500 people in Crimea and 500 in Sevastopol participated in the poll, meaning the statistical margin for error doesn’t exceed 4.5 percent, according to Fyodorov.

If Ukraine doesn’t change the wording in question, Russia is most likely to abandon the contract, Dmitry Peskov, the Russian president’s press secretary, said, upon learning of the outcome of the poll. Putin has already been informed of the results of the survey, he added.

The vote was ordered by President Putin, who wanted to know if locals approved of the renewal of the contract with the Ukrainian Ukrenergo company.

The order followed yet another power line disruption that occurred on December 30 when an electricity pylon was blown up. Ukrainian ultranationalists from the Right Sector group had already damaged a pylon in November, and then prevented rescue teams from repairing it. Since that act of sabotage, Crimea has been suffering from constant blackouts, prompting Russia to boost its own power supplies.

https://www.rt.com/politics/327673-crimea-vote-contract-ukraine/

[Duckhunter935]

1. Russia stole it

They can feed and power it. I am sure they never gave back all of the ships and military equipment they took.

RT, lol

[kristopher]

10. Great argument for distributed renewable energy...

'Centralized power' - it's interesting how the political and engineering concepts overlay each other so well.

[newthinking]

23. Unfortunately Russia is further behind in this area than even we are

It is too easy for them to rely on their oil reserves.

Crimea gets a HUGE number of sun hours and also gets wind. It would be an ideal place to create a completely sustainable infrastructure.

[PatrynXX]

14. yeah although I was rather giving on one facebook post for Moscow Times

had a riff with someone about that and he's like hey Russia supplies Ukraine with power then Crimea. X_X so makes no sense to cut off Crimea because Russia would cut off Ukraine. That was his argument. O_O um or you could just power Crimea our City undertook one of the biggest investments in Fiber optic cable while at the same time buring all possible sorts of cable as well. It was a cost saving measure. If your digging conduits for power, cable and in the future phone lines (Feb 2016) why not put the Fiber down there. Yes I'm told you can do it over cable but Fiber is far more reliable than old old corroded copper cable. I'd imagine an ENTIRE country should be able to afford to rewire the mains to run off Russia. Which is why Crimeans want Russia right? To supposedly be better off.

Of course this is why out oil is so cheap. We are pumping a glut of oil into the market and Saudi Arabia is miffed about it so they aren't cutting down. Where's the solar guys...

[MisterP]

2. only Ukraine gets free power!

[Spitfire of ATJ]

3. I wonder if this would work with Texas.

[WcoastO]

4. Texas has an independent system....

of power generation and distribution...85% of their power is generated within the state.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

5. Ever met one? They think they power the whole country.

[Feeling the Bern]

9. What does this have to do with Crimea?

[Purveyor]

11. Yeah...they do. "Texas Ranks Last in Electrical Power Reliability"

It is almost August. That means Texans are avoiding the heat, air-conditioners are cranking, and electrical power demand is going through the roof.

Let’s hope the power stays on.

Texas likes to be No. 1 at everything. But we are currently dead last when it comes to the reliability of our electrical system, according to a recent assessment by the North American Electric Reliability Corporation, a group that keeps tabs on the country’s power situation with the exception of Alaska and Hawaii.

That means that California — yes, California — is less likely to experience systemwide blackouts this summer than Texas. That even takes into account the problems at a major nuclear plant south of Los Angeles.

“I’ve been doing assessments for five years, and I have not seen this situation” on the Texas grid system, said John Noura, the associate director of reliability assessments at N.E.R.C.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/20/us/texas-ranks-last-in-electrical-power-reliability.html?_r=0

[ForgoTheConsequence]

6. Why not move to Russia?

Seems reasonable.

[moondust]

7. Why would Kiev

feel obligated in any way to provide power or anything else to Crimea after Russia stole "annexed" it? Doesn't make any sense.

Which raises the question of why did Putin believe it was somehow okay to steal "annex" Crimea when Kiev had been its provider of utilities, infrastructure, etc., for decades? I'm guessing Putin considered negotiating for Crimea but suspected Kiev would demand a high price so he simply stole "annexed" it using the threat of brute force instead.

[newthinking]

8. Well, say, if they actually didn't want to alienate (further) the region they claim to want to

return?

Both Ukraine and Russia found continuing their utility relationships advantageous (Russia has supplied cheap utilities to Ukraine for decades as well). Russia was paying for the electricity at full retail.

What ended the situation was that right sector, who are continuing to grow in power in Ukraine, have destabilized the power lines. Crimea has already been dealing with power issues due to this so with the power lines that were blown up the 30th that pretty much finished that relationship.

If you still believe the narrative promoted by the msm I suggest you read up on the **Autonomous REPUBLIC of Crimea*** which is actually the name of the region but never get's mentioned. There is a reason for the name, the region had never fully embraced what was essentially an annexation by corrupt Ukraine judges.

The reason for the name "Autonomous" was due to a previous vote as Crimea voted to be independent of Ukraine in 1991 (94%) (and had their own President and Parliament).

I am sure I might believe the media narrative too if I did not know the region (Ukraine and Crimea) personally. The narrative was a shock to watch.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autonomous_Republic_of_Crimea

[Proserpina]

12. To honor their contract? You know, legaly enforceable agreements with cash involved?

[reACTIONary]

15. They are not under contract.....

.... according to the artcle:

A previous contract to supply electricity to the peninsula expired on January 1, and electricity supplies were cut at midnight on Thursday, Russian media reported.

[Proserpina]

17. To prevent another Chernobyl, then

Ukraine nuclear power plants ‘dangerously’ without power as towers feeding energy to Crimea blown up

Rt.com 23 Nov, 2015

In an eerie reminder of a possible nuclear catastrophe, a senior Ukrainian energy official revealed that the attack on transmission towers that cut off the delivery of electricity from Ukraine to Crimea also created an emergency situation at nuclear power plants.

The apparent act of sabotage in Ukraine’s Kherson region forced an emergency power unloading at several Ukrainian nuclear power plants, which can be extremely dangerous, according to the first deputy director of Ukraine’s energy company Ukrenergo, Yuriy Katich.

Russia’s Crimea was forced to switch to autonomous reserve power after transmission towers in the adjacent Ukrainian region were blown up, causing a blackout. Meanwhile, the repairs were delayed by Right Sector and Crimean Tatar“activists” attempting to block crews from getting to the scene. None of the groups have accepted responsibility.

“All of these events have led to an additional emergency shutdown of the electrical network of two units at thermal power plants – the Dnieper and Uglegorskaya – and the emergency unloading by 500 MW of nuclear power plants in Ukraine. This includes Zaporozhskaya NPP and the South Ukrainian NPP. I want to stress that such emergency unloading of a nuclear plant – it is very dangerous,” 112. Ukraine online portal quoted Katich as saying………

https://www.rt.com/news/323060-ukraine-nuclear-plants-danger/

[snappyturtle]

13. Good for Crimea. Kiev must be desperate to be so

stupid to destroy electrical power to Crimea and THEN think Crimea would want to return to Ukraine.

[reACTIONary]

16. Kiev may or may not have...

.... misjudged the situation, but they did not destroy electrical power. The contract expired :

A previous contract to supply electricity to the peninsula expired on January 1, and electricity supplies were cut at midnight on Thursday, Russian media reported.

[newthinking]

19. The lines were severed the night before (30th). Even if another contract were signed power would not

be restored for some time while the lines were restored.

One reason why it was such an easy decision for the Crimean people. This was the second time that extremists had blown up electricity towers.

This is not the only relationship connection between the countries. Folks with no experience in the region don't realize how intertwined the countries are. Their families are intermarried. Hundreds of thousands have dual citizenship. That is why, no matter how long this continues the government in Ukraine will never be successful.

That is also why we had to help Ukraine to place a foreigner to administer Odessa. Because most Odessans have family in Russia and was a very multicultural city. The current government is literally forcefully keeping families from uniting for holidays etc with their policies. And there are other cities the same way. That is simply unsustainable.

[reACTIONary]

21. Thanks for the information eom

[reACTIONary]

18. Apparently Crimea gets ....

.... 80% of its electrical power from outside sources and only produces 20% domestically. I'm not sure where that 80% comes from, but if it is the Ukraine the pretty much are going to have to be accommodating.

[newthinking]

20. Russia is building a new infrastructure. They completed power lines across the sea last month

They have brought in temporary facilities. They are standing up solar and wind. But it all takes time.

I believe they are over the 50% line at this point.

The resources they are pouring into the region are impressive. They put together a plan for the bridge across the Kerch straight and were breaking ground in less than 6 months on a $6 billion effort. It is expected to be completed in early 2017. That is impressive by any measure.

[reACTIONary]

22. Thanks for the update . ...

..... after posting i noticed further down in the article that they were building that infrastructure .

[left-of-center2012]

24. "94 per cent of the 1000 respondents questioned had opposed the new supply contract"

Like the Communist elections where 99.6% voted for the dictator.

[newthinking]

26. When Ukraine cut power just before midnight Dec. 31st, that surely offended most of the population

New Years eve is the biggest and most social holiday of the year.

I have no idea if that number is exaggerated, but given they took the poll the day after people had their Holiday events interrupted it might not be so surprising.

They have been suffering power outages brought on by Ukrainian groups that sabotaged the lines several times already and had to live with power interruptions until Mid December (when Russia brought additional power online from across Kerch).

If they had not gone this route they still would have had to wait for full power while the lines that were severed on the 30th by nationalists were repaired.

This poll makes complete and practical sense.

[madokie]

25. I swear

if one of our clown car occupants makes it to the white house there will be another world war.