Ukraine working with partners to increase electricity imports ahead of winter – MP

This was stated by MP Inna Sovsun, head of the subcommittee on bringing the Ukrainian legislation in line with the European Union law within the Verkhovna Rada's Committee on Energy, Housing and Utilities, in a comment to Ukrinform.

She noted that Ukraine is on the brink of a very difficult winter when there will obviously be insufficient electricity generation, and "fixing this problem at this stage is very challenging."

"There is still time to obtain generators and small gas stations, but overall, we are entering winter with half of the necessary peak generation. One of the small solutions that could help is increasing electricity imports from Europe to Ukraine," Sovsun said.

According to her, there is technical capability for this, and there are no restrictions; the issue lies only in regulatory decisions. A decision to allow a bit more electricity to be exported to Ukraine via ENTSO-E, the EU agency, is currently being assessed by specialists to determine whether it could cause instability in their system.

In this context, the MP emphasized that despite the severe attacks over the past 2.5 years, the Ukrainian energy system remains quite resilient.

The head of the subcommittee stated that it is important for Ukraine to ‘politically push’ for a decision to be made "now, rather than in March." She believes it is realistic to achieve this within a very short timeframe to meet the onset of colder weather.

"We need to focus on this because no other step will be as inexpensive on one hand, and on the other, it will not yield as quick an effect as increasing electricity imports from the EU. This is truly something that can help and can be implemented quite quickly," Sovsun believes.

She also commented on the dismissal of the head of Ukrenergo, Volodymyr Kudrytskyi, in early September, which, according to her, has its consequences.

"We see this in communications with foreign partners, even in public statements from representatives of the German government, that they have noticed this and see it as a negative trend overall. We see that they are now more actively talking about the need for transparent corporate governance rules in the system. These are all echoes of the story surrounding Kudrytskyi's dismissal," the MP noted.

She added that, unfortunately, Europeans saw this ‘dubious political decision’ as a negative signal regarding what is happening in the Ukrainian energy sector, which provided arguments for those looking for justifications to reduce assistance to Ukraine.

As previously reported, on September 2, the Supervisory Board dismissed Chairman of the Board of Ukrenergo, Volodymyr Kudrytskyi, by majority vote. Since September 4, the duties of the head of Ukrenergo have been performed by Oleksii Brecht, a Board member responsible for the operation, restoration, and development of high-voltage infrastructure.