The Kosiv energy company KEDS said it will shut off electricity at 8 a.m. on Monday due to the lack of domestic production and high import prices.

"Consumers will have six years of work and two years of vacation," KEDS spokesman Victor Buzhala told Reuters. The company did not say when the cuts will end. Buzhala said the company receives only 500 MWh/year from coal-fired power plants and renewable energy sources, while consumption reaches 800 MWh/year.

In a weekly statement, KEDS said it and the country's transmission system operator KOSTT could not afford to import electricity and would have to rely on domestic production.

Nearly 90% of the electricity in the country is produced from coal, and the electricity company KEK said it had turned off nearly half of its generators for regular maintenance to prepare them for winter. Consumption of electricity increases more than twice in the winter, because homes use it for heating. "If they turn off the electricity, what will happen in the meantime? Will we freeze to death?" - said Mileim Berisha, a resident of Pristina, who checked the distributor's delivery to find out when the electricity would be turned on in his house. Similar power cuts were introduced last year in March when consumption reached a record high when temperatures dropped below zero degrees Celsius.

At the beginning of September, the Kosovo parliament declared a state of emergency in the energy sector for 60 days to help the government implement all the necessary measures to overcome the crisis, including disconnection of electric power.