On May 13, 2026, the Ukrainian Business Council, in collaboration with the All-Ukrainian Agency for Investment and Sustainable Development (SDIA), held a conference titled “Business Energy Resilience.” The event took place as part of the project of the same name, which is being implemented with the support of the Center for International Private Enterprise (CIPE). The event was attended by members of parliament, representatives of the Regulator (NEURC), the Recovery and Reform Support Team (RST) under the Ministry of Community and Territorial Development of Ukraine (Ministry of Development), the Ministry of Economy of Ukraine, as well as leaders of leading industry business associations.

Participants discussed the findings of the study developed by experts from think tanks and specific proposals for amendments to regulatory and legal acts.

Andriy Gerus, Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Energy and Housing and Communal Services, welcomed the inclusive dialogue with the business community and commented on key legislative issues. Regarding tariffs, he supported liberalization but cautioned that this could lead to higher prices for businesses. Land issues for solar power plants have largely already been resolved for the enterprises’ own needs. Regarding energy efficiency requirements in public procurement, he expressed a cautious stance. In wartime conditions, the speed of recovery is often more important than long-term optimization. Regarding the varying electricity prices at which enterprises can sell power to the grid throughout the day, he explained the market logic:

“During the day, it’s 10 hryvnias per megawatt-hour, and in the evening—14,000 hryvnias.”

The committee chair advised companies to focus specifically on covering their own daytime consumption rather than on selling surpluses, and to install energy storage systems.

Serhiy Nahorniak, a member of parliament and chairman of the Subcommittee on Energy Conservation and Energy Efficiency of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Energy and Housing and Communal Services, emphasized the critical importance of direct dialogue with businesses, rather than just among officials. He noted that businesses do not seek to profit at the state’s expense—they need a predictable return on investment horizon of 5–7 years.

The Member of Parliament supported the idea of targeted insurance against war risks for energy facilities in frontline regions and advocated for regionally differentiated incentives for distributed generation.

Yulia Usenko, Chair of SDIA, presented the project’s analytical report. The study highlights the challenges and recommended solutions for two key components of energy resilience: distributed generation and energy efficiency. The nine recommended solutions for more active development of distributed generation projects focus on key areas: improving market mechanisms, simplifying the permitting system and land relations, and ensuring financial security.

Among the practical gaps is the absence of a separate code for energy storage facilities in the Classifier of Buildings and Structures, which complicates the subsequent construction and commissioning of such facilities in accordance with the requirements of current legislation. Ms. Usenko also drew attention to a “stalled” draft law, which, among other things, contains provisions regarding the development of geothermal energy projects by abolishing the fee for special subsoil use for the purpose of providing heat to communities. The document was published on the Ministry of Energy’s website back in December 2025, but has not yet been registered with the Verkhovna Rada.

Sviatoslav Pavliuk, chairman of the “Energy-Efficient Cities of Ukraine” Association, described the systemic barriers to the development of the energy efficiency market. The main problem is the artificial suppression of tariffs for utility companies, which deprives them of their ability to pay and makes it impossible to attract private capital for modernization. The expert called the situation particularly absurd when the Regulator removes from the tariff the savings achieved by the enterprise through investments in energy efficiency:

“Instead of stimulating this investment component as an internal resource for reinvestment, it is simply removed—and this is absolutely unacceptable.”

Among other industry challenges is an underestimated depreciation base when setting investment tariffs. In the event of a revaluation of fixed assets, current legislation requires calculating income tax on the difference between the previous and updated values. According to estimates, the amount of tax that would have to be paid could reach two to three times the annual budget of a utility company.

Vadym Chagarovsky, head of the Ukrainian Dairy Industry Association, cited specific examples of unfair competition. About 10 dairy processing plants have installed cogeneration units but are forced to purchase gas at market prices. Meanwhile, some traditional electricity producers still have access to subsidized gas.

A telling example is a solar power plant with a capacity of over 6 MW in the Poltava region: the company sells surplus electricity to the grid for 1 kopeck per kilowatt-hour. This price completely discourages investment in solar power generation. Mr. Chagarovsky also drew attention to the acute shortage of qualified design firms.

Nazarii Volyanskyi, a representative of the Ukrainian Taxpayers Association, and Olesia Serebryanik, a representative of the Energy Union, raised the issue of the crisis in the public electricity procurement system. The rule prohibiting contract price adjustments of more than 10% is leading to widespread violations and criminal proceedings. This is effectively paralyzing the market. According to the participants, without legislative regulation of this issue, preparing the power grid for next winter will be significantly complicated.

Ivan Bondarchuk, a partner at LCF Law Group and head of the Energy and Projects practice, highlighted a legal pitfall for businesses constructing gas piston plants under a simplified procedure (CMU Resolution No. 1320).

The two-year deadline for commissioning such facilities in accordance with the general requirements of urban planning legislation is coming to an end, yet there is no clear procedure for their “legalization” under the law. A similar problem exists with land issues within populated areas—changing the designated use of land there takes between six months and a year.

The Chair of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Energy and Housing and Communal Services noted the importance of these issues and invited experts to continue discussions to address them with the Cabinet of Ministers.

Tetyana Dumenko, Deputy Chair of the Fuel and Energy Business Association, raised the issue of the energy resilience of critical infrastructure during shelling. Attacks on gas stations threaten community mobility and access to autonomous power generation, yet banks refuse to provide loans for facilities with elevated military risk. The industry representative also asked whether it is fair to collect advance income tax payments from companies that have not yet resumed operations following the attacks.

Yuriy Duchenko, president of the All-Ukrainian Bakers Association, asked for details regarding the government’s business support program for installing power generation facilities, announced to take effect on June 1 through the NUR mechanism. The industry needs affordable loans with clear terms—not only for the generation facilities themselves, but also for cyber defense systems and energy storage units. Yuriy Duchenko also echoed concerns regarding the shortage of qualified installers and designers as a separate systemic issue.

Yuriy Ostapyuk, Deputy Director of the NEURC Department, commented on the issues of grid connection and the development of the “cable pooling” mechanism. He emphasized the Regulator’s principled stance: “If there is a problem, it must have a case number. If there is no reference number, then there is no problem.” The NEURC emphasizes the importance of official reports from businesses regarding violations of their rights, particularly during grid connection.

Regarding draft law No. 4777, which, among other things, contains provisions on expanding the “cable pooling” mechanism for the joint connection of producers, consumers, and RES operators, Mr. Ostapiuk stated: the final draft is to be submitted for consideration within two weeks.

Oleksiy Tykhonov, head of the Housing and Utilities Sector at the Recovery and Reform Support Team (RST) under the Ministry of Development, raised the chronic issue of settlements between distribution system operators and condominium associations/managers of multi-unit buildings. Due to the inability to maintain individual apartment-level accounting, building managers are effectively forced to subsidize the debts of other consumers or enter into informal agreements with energy providers. As a solution, the division head proposed either granting such buildings the status of a small distribution system or requiring DSO operators to maintain accurate accounting records.

Following the event, participants agreed to continue collaborating on the implementation of the discussed projects and to formalize key proposals in official letters to the Cabinet of Ministers, the Ministry of Energy, the NEURC, and the relevant committees of the Verkhovna Rada. The project’s training webinars, featuring mentorship for specific distributed generation and UZE projects, will take place in June–July 2026.

The project “Business Energy Resilience: Promoting Distributed Generation” is being implemented by the All-Ukrainian Agency for Investment and Sustainable Development (SDIA) in partnership with the Ukrainian Business Council (UBC), with support from the Center for International Private Enterprise (CIPE).