Thread by @rybar_en

🇲🇩🇺🇦💡On Electricity Supply in the Odessa Region and Connections to Moldova and Transnistria

Analyzing the results of the Russian strikes on Ukraine's energy infrastructure, our team is troubled by one uncomfortable issue:

On the territory of Transnistria there is a large thermal power plant - the Moldavskaya TPP. From its open switchgear there is a 400 kV high-voltage line to Romania, as well as a 330 kV high-voltage line to Moldovan-controlled territory, to Ukraine, and Transnistria itself.

Odessa Oblast, which contains long-term arrangements to transfer both personnel and foreign equipment to the front near Mykolaiv and Kherson, receives a significant part of its electricity precisely from the Moldavskaya thermal power plant.

Yes, the Oblast is also fed by the South Ukraine nuclear plant, Ladyzhinska TPP and the hydro plant cascade on the Dnieper. Still, the Moldavskaya TPP plays an important role.

So, during the spring and summer escalation around Transnistria (when Ukrainian formations conducted exercises near the borders, and some politicians seriously expressed the need for a military operation), a strange situation was observed:

All this time, the Moldavskaya thermal power plant *continued to supply* Ukraine with electricity. But then came October, energy infrastructure was attacked. Almost all thermal plants were hit by cruise missiles or drones.

In addition, substations were hit across the country, except for facilities in the Odessa region (the situation changed on October 22, when two substations in the Odessa region were hit for the first time).

🔻 What's even stranger is that after the strikes on energy facilities connecting Ukraine to Romania, hundreds of megawatts of electricity are quietly transiting through the Moldavskaya thermal power plant.

And the wildest thing in this situation is that the Moldavskaya thermal power plant also still *generates* electricity that goes to Ukraine.

Yes, we can find many excuses.

For example, the dependence of northern Transnistria on the Podolskaya 330 substation located in Ukraine. Or some commercial contracts for the export and transit of electricity, nothing personal, just business to help the Transnistrian budget.

Or one may object that technically there are no opportunities, that the Transnistrian Republic is an independent state, which decides itself with whom to trade.
There are a lot of reasons to come up with.

But then what is the point of all this? In the end it means we're punching our opponent in the face with one hand, and holding out an ice pack with the other.

[Translation note: in English it's usually called the Cuciurgan power station]