Ukraine’s energy system is entering a new heating season carrying problems that didn’t emerge overnight. Infrastructure attacks, billion-hryvnia debts owed to producers, bureaucratic bottlenecks in grid connections, and a technical drafting error in legislation that has effectively frozen Ukrenergo’s tariff review. The sector needs systemic solutions, not patch-up fixes. EUEA Executive Director Anastasiia Vereshchynska outlined the key challenges in an interview with Pryamyi TV channel.<\/p>\n
Energy infrastructure remains a constant target regardless of the season. Strikes on gas infrastructure, transmission lines, and generation facilities happen regularly, even when they don’t make headlines. The cumulative toll is real, and Ukraine is entering this winter in a weaker position than at any point in previous seasons.<\/p>\n
Since 2022, debt owed to renewable energy producers has reached approximately UAH 20 billion. There is effectively no clear source of repayment: the only realistic option is Ukrenergo’s tariff, which contains a green energy component. Part of the debt could be covered through recalculations for prior periods, but the remaining UAH 7 billion requires either additional financing or incorporation into that same tariff. Attracting capital to a sector where the counterparty is a Guaranteed Buyer with chronic payment arrears is an extremely difficult sell.<\/p>\n
Grid connection remains a time-consuming and resource-intensive process for developers. The capacity reservation mechanism functions, but the bottleneck appears wherever Ukrenergo is responsible for its portion of the work. A private company hires contractors and builds quickly; Ukrenergo tenders can drag on for up to a year. For battery storage investors, this has already translated into months of waiting with significant capital already committed. A legislative fix allowing investors to run their own tenders and manage the external construction process with Ukrenergo’s involvement could cut timelines by six months. A separate issue involves taxation when grid infrastructure is transferred to oblenergos: when an investor builds a substation and hands it over to the state, additional tax liabilities can arise, making the arrangement financially unattractive, even though a legislative remedy is entirely feasible.<\/p>\n
The market coupling law passed by the Verkhovna Rada restructures the entire electricity market. From 2027, price caps are set to be lifted, opening up opportunities for Ukrainian traders on European markets and supporting price stabilisation. Full integration is expected in 2028 or 2029. At the same time, the same law contains a technical error that effectively prevents the regulator from revising Ukrenergo’s tariff without amending the legislation. Ukrenergo submitted a well-grounded request: funds allocated for compensating curtailed renewable generation are running out, the exchange rate has shifted, and operating costs have risen. The parliamentary route means no changes before October, nearly half a year of an underfunded tariff and further debt accumulation on top of the existing UAH 20 billion. EUEA is working with the regulator to find a solution that doesn’t require waiting on the parliamentary process.<\/p>\n
The accumulated problems won’t be solved by a single piece of legislation. But some of them can be addressed right now: fix the technical drafting error, remove the tax barrier on infrastructure transfers, and give investors meaningful control over their own grid connections. The question is whether there’s the political will to do it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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