Miners at Ukraine’s DTEK Energy reportedly put 18 new coal mine faces into operation between January and October 2024, and plan to commission eight more before the end of the year, per an Interfax-Ukraine news agency report.
The outlet, which cited the company’s statement, said DTEK was able to accumulate the needed fuel stocks to get through the autumn-winter season and also support thermal power plants’ fuel needs during electricity consumption peaks.
That will involve, it added, investments of more than 6.5 billion hryvni (US$157 million) that it has already made in coal mining since the beginning of 2024.
DTEK Energy CEO Alexander Fomenko was quoted by the statement as saying it wants to increase that to 7.6 billion hryvni (US$183.6 million) before the end of the year. That will fund construction and maintenance of capital mine workings, equipping coal faces, tunneling equipment, underground mine transport, and facility maintenance.
Interfax-Ukraine previously reported that DTEK Energy put 26 new coal mine faces into operation in 2023 and nearly doubled its investment in coal.
DTEK Energy provides a closed cycle of electricity production from coal. According to the news service, the installed capacity in thermal electricity generation totaled 13.3 GW as of January 2022.
Source: Ukraine’s DTEK Energy launches 18 new coal mine faces in Jan-Oct 2024