Coal reserves at Ukraine's power plants rose 5.3%, or 62,000 mt, to 1.221 million mt as of Monday from last Wednesday, transmission system operator UkrEnergo reported Tuesday.
Ukraine's reserves of anthracite coal, which is widely used by the country's power plants, increased by 5.2% to 527,000 mt over the same period. Reserves of other types of thermal coal rose 5.5% to 694,000 mt, UkrEnergo said.
Although the pace of coal accumulation has picked up, the reserves are still below the government's target, underscoring the need for further imports. Ukraine needs 2.5 million mt of coal in reserve by October 15, including 1 million mt of anthracite, according to the government.
Total coal inventories are now 579,000 mt lower than in the same week last year, when Ukraine had 1.8 million mt of coal in stock, including 835,900 mt of anthracite, according to UkrEnergo.
Ukraine, a major producer of coal, has been experiencing problems with coal supplies during the past two years due to the armed conflict in Donetsk and Lugansk, the country's two key coal producing regions.
Stocks of fuel oil at power plants fell to 30,700 mt as of Monday from 31,500 mt as of last Wednesday.
UkrEnergo reports on fuel oil stocks with coal stocks because some Ukrainian power plants use fuel oil to initiate the burning of coal. Fuel oil also used by power plants as a reserve fuel for power generation.
As of Monday, Ukraine's nuclear power plants were operating at 9.12 GW, fossil fuel-burning power plants operated at 7.050 GW, hydropower plants operated at 1.2 GW and wind-and-solar-powered plants at 162 MW, the company said.
