This past year, Ukraine and Ukrainians have often been in the thoughts of Aurora’s employees. In March, at each of our sites, quick decisions were made to channel most of Aurora’s 2022 donations to the Red Cross’ relief fund in support of the victims of the Ukraine crisis. However, we did so without forgetting our long-term local support initiatives: the Lapland Rescue Helicopter Aslak and our traditional school cooperation in the Porvoo area.
A current topic in Finnish media is the discussion around the energy crisis and what type of aid citizens can get. Amid it all, we must remember why we are in this situation in the first place, and where the suffering is real – suffering beyond high electricity prices or possible limited restrictions on electricity usage. In the Ukraine, their destroyed electrical infrastructure will impact the nation and its citizens negatively for a long time to come, and only with significant external aid will it be possible for them to even cope with the winter.
The need for equipment aid to support the energy sector in the Ukraine has been widely recognized in Finland, and Aurora has also considered its possibilities to make equipment donations. We finally found a component that hopefully will mean a lot more to the Ukrainians than it does to us at this moment. Before presenting it below, I would like, on behalf of Aurora, to thank you and wish our staff, customers and partners a warm Christmas and a safe New Year!
Tony Lindroos, CEO Aurora
Generator aid on its way
While watching the evening news about the situation in Ukraine, Head of O&M Mika Halonen began to think whether Aurora could do something concrete to help. Aurora might very well have something to donate that could ease the situation for the Ukrainians at least a little. This is how the idea of sending a back-up industrial-scale reserve power generator to Ukraine was born. When Mika presented his idea to Site Manager Jyrki Havukainen, it became apparent that Jyrki had also thought about the same, and thus the decision to send the generator was made quickly.
The portable 230 kW diesel generator, installed in a shipping container can supply electricity to, for example, a hospital property or a similar critical site during power outages. The further processing of the donation will be handled as soon as possible in accordance with the instructions from the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment of Finland.
