Volodymyr Kudrytskyi, the head of the energy company Ukrenergo, has said that hundreds of small power plants should be built to protect the country's infrastructure from Russian attacks.
"Currently, electricity production is concentrated on just a few sites of large thermal and hydroelectric power plants, so their damage during massive Russian shelling leads to serious problems with energy supply," Kudrytskyi explained.
He continued that "most of these energy facilities were built in the 60s and 70s of the last century, and it will be difficult to restore them indefinitely after Russian strikes."
"The only sustainable way to protect the power system from such massive missile terror is to decentralise generating capacities. That is, instead of 15 or 20 large power plants, hundreds of small ones, from 5 to 30 MW of capacity, should be built. They will be more resistant to these attacks due to their dispersion," said the head of Ukrenergo.
Kudrytskyi believes that new power plants should be different, and in addition to solar and wind, it is also necessary to build small but highly manoeuvrable gas plants and energy storage systems.
Over the past month, Russia has stepped up its attacks on Ukraine's energy infrastructure, with power facilities in Kharkiv being hit hardest.
On Thursday morning, Ukrenergo reported that a schedule of blackouts had been introduced in Kharkiv as a result of the shelling and that 350,000 customers were without electricity.
As of the evening of the same day, Ukrenergo introduced rolling blackouts in six regions.