The U.S. Agency for International Development has awarded Tetra Tech a potential $438.7 million contract to support the government of Ukraine.
Under the five-year deal, the California-based company will provide Kyiv with strategic technical and procurement assistance to build the reliability and resilience of the European nation’s electricity, natural gas and district heating sectors.
USAID’s Securing Power, Advancing Resilience and Connectivity program aims to support Ukraine’s efforts to address current challenges amid its war with Russia.
Currently, the Eastern European nation imports electricity from its neighboring countries Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania and Moldova.
Russia has been targeting Ukraine’s critical infrastructures. On March 22, Moscow launched a missile and drone attack on Ukraine’s power grids, causing lengthy outages.
Volodymyr Kudrytsky, head of national grid operator Ukrenergo, warned that Moscow’s attacks on Ukraine’s power grid have increased in intensity.
The official estimated that the country would need to raise money from private investors to build a large number of small power plants to resist similar threats in the future. He said Kyiv would also need “hundreds of facilities of various types” such as gas-fired and renewable power stations.