Preparation for the future heating season is under the schedule. Over 20 days of September an additional 211,000 tonnes of coal has been accumulated at warehouses of thermal power plants (TPPs), Ukrainian Energy and Coal Industry Minister Ihor Nasalyk said at a meeting of the parliamentary committee for the fuel and energy complex on Wednesday.

"Today a delay from the schedule in accumulating coal at warehouses of TPPs and combined heat and power plants is 189,000 tonnes, which is equal to the volume of coal burnt at TPPs only during two and a half days," the minister said.

Nasalyk said that on Wednesday, after the end of the repair campaign, reactor one of Zaporizhia nuclear power plant (NPP) will be connected to the Ukrainian power grid. This would reduce the burden on heat generation facilities that took the heat in summer and early autumn when several reactors of NPPs were undergoing repair.

The minister recalled that last summer TPPs burnt 2 million tonnes more due to extra burden compared to the similar period of 2015.

He said that in September nuclear generation is to increase electricity generation to 8.4 gigawatts (7.6 gigawatts in August). This would help heat generating companies not only to accumulate coal, but also finish all repairs at power plants.

Nasalyk repeated that by the start of the heating season 17 billion cubic meters of natural gas is to be pumped to underground storage facilities.