Kyiv, November 14 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The illegal power interchange from the Russian power grid could appear at any emergency blackout at Ukrainian thermal power plants, nuclear power plants or growth in consumption when the weather conditions worsen, President of Ukrainian Energy Assembly and former Fuel and Energy Minister of Ukraine Ivan Plachkov said at a press conference at Interfax-Ukraine on Thursday.

"One of the ways out of the situation is to organize imports of power interchange from other countries. It is possible to do this only with Russia from the technological point of view. We have a contract with Russia which defines interchange of only 25 million kWh a month. We should expand the contract. Energomarket [state enterprise] is to sign a contract, the NCER [the National Commission of Ukraine for Energy and Housing and Utilities Services Regulation] is to define the price of the product so that criminal cases against those who signed the contract were not opened," he said.

He said that the country's balance of energy should be formed, all energy resources should be calculated and distributed manually, otherwise the country could see serious consequences.

Plachkov expressed perplex with the fact that the Cabinet of Ministers has not yet created a commission for the energy situation.

The former minister believes that the energy sector should be de-politicized and coal should be bought everywhere where it is possible.

President of CIGRE-Ukraine Association and former Energy and Electrification Minister of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic (Ukraine) Vitaliy Skliarov said that a threat of blackouts is high, and social services and the public should be ready for this.

Skliarov said that equipment should be brought in order, first of all underfrequency load shedding and prepare people for the said situation. The police are to be ready to regulate road traffic, subway workers should know what to do if power disappears, etc.