On April 21, 2026, the Centre’s Director of Energy and Infrastructure Programmes V. Omelchenko delivered a keynote speech at a meeting of the Coalition Council. In his speech, he emphasized that the Ukrainian energy system is entering the next heating season with serious risks related to a possible capacity deficit of up to 5 GW under conditions of massive shelling.
Omelchenko proposed improving the conditions for connection of cogeneration units with economic incentives, in particular:
– Introduction of an imperative model of project approval with a requirement to provide the full list of critical comments at the first stage and limiting repeated comments.
– Creation of a uniform mechanism to monitor the deadlines (deadlines - electronic recording - reporting - complaint - verification by the regulator).
– Transition from complete exemption from outages to priority operation of cogeneration units to ensure the energy system stability.
– Implementation of a digital project support route in construction, not giving up the current exceptions.
– Elaboration of approaches to connection (connection points) and use of regulator appeal mechanisms.
– Review of economic conditions for cogeneration by raising price caps and possible introduction of special conditions for gas supply.
– Introduction of long-term incentive models (e.g., “fixed premium”) following the example of European countries.
– Replacement of imported natural gas with domestically produced biofuel in the medium term.
Following the meeting, a government order is expected to encourage the development of cogeneration plants.
The meeting was attended by the First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Energy D. Shmyhal, members of the government, heads of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine committees, city mayors, heads of state-owned companies, business representatives and experts.
Secretary of the meeting – People's Deputy D. Hetmantsev.
