Ukrenergo, Ukraine’s energy transmission operator, announced on Monday, that concrete structures to help protect substations from drone strikes have been partially constructed at 41 facilities.
“NEC [National Energy Company] Ukrenergo is finalizing the construction of the first phase of anti-drone protection of high-voltage equipment at 41 company facilities,” read the company’s press release, adding that the State Agency for Reconstruction and Development of Infrastructure of Ukraine is completing the construction of the first stage of protection at another 22 Ukrenergo facilities.
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The company said the “protective reinforced concrete structures,” implemented only at Ukrenergo’s high-voltage substations, could withstand missile fragments or a direct hit from the Iranian Shahed drones favored by Moscow.
It did not elaborate on the constructions and components employed, citing security concerns.
“Ukraine is the first country in the world that invented a comprehensive solution for physical protection against [drone] strikes,” it added.
It said the project was financed by foreign aid, and “not a single hryvnia from the budget of Ukraine was spent on the construction of defense structures.”
It added that the project costs millions in local currency and provided a cost breakdown associated with the construction.
“The cost of the vast majority of buildings varies in the range from Hr.100 to 130 million [$2.4 million to $3.1 million] (without VAT). The construction cost is different for each site, as it accounts for the new requirements of the General Staff and the State Emergency Service for structures approved during the construction process, the electrical part, and other related works,” it said.
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Ukrenergo added that other “protective structures” have already been constructed “at the vast majority” of its substations, where it estimated that potential damages caused by successful Russian strikes to be “5-6 times greater.”
Substations are crucial components of the energy transmission system as they step down voltages from power plants and transmission lines to usable voltages for household and commercial users.
As Kyiv Post reported in July, Russian strikes on Ukrainian energy infrastructure have deprived the country of most of its generation capacity, leaving potentially less than 9 gigawatts (GW) of actual capacity down from the pre-2022 invasion figure of 36 GW.
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