A fire at the Luhansk thermal power plant operated by DTEK Skhidenergo has been extinguished, the energy holding's press service told Interfax-Ukraine on Sept. 17 night.
There is no power supply to northern territories of the Luhansk Oblast, including Severodonetsk, Lysychansk, Rubizhne, Novoaidar and Starobilsk, with a total population exceeding 1.5 million.
Workers have been trapped in mines because of the power outage. “The Luhansk thermal power plant supplies electricity to 21 mines. Workers are unable to go to the surface because lights are out,” the press service said.
“The DTEK personnel are doing their best to restore power supply and bring the miners to the surface,” it stressed.
The Luhansk thermal power plant was disabled at 16:10 on Sept. 17 after it was hit by a shell and a fire started at a transformer sub-station.
DTEK was established in 2005 to manage the energy assets of Rinat Akhmetov’s SCM Group (Donetsk). DTEK operates a vertically integrated chain of group enterprises mining and dressing coal and generating and distributing electric power.
