On April 25th, Low Carbon Ukraine, the German Energy Agency (dena), the German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ) and the Energy Act for Ukraine Foundation organised a joint online roundtable titled: “Keeping the lights on in times of grid outages”, which brought together a wide range of experts covering both the analytical and practical aspects of the decentralization of Ukraine’s energy system.

The Roundtable began with short opening remarks by the Ukrainian Deputy Energy Minister Yaroslav Demchenkov and Deputy Ambassador of the German Embassy in Kyiv Dr. Bertram von Moltke. At the beginning of the conference, a recent policy briefing on the economic and energy security benefits of distributed energy sources was presented by Dinara Saparova, an Energy and Climate Policy Analyst at Low Carbon Ukraine. Anastasiia Vereshchynska, the Partnerships Manager at Energy Act for Ukraine Foundation then shared with the audience recent experiences with installing and implementing decentralized solar projects at Ukrainian schools and hospitals, including successes and challenges.

Denys Tsutsaiev from Greenpeace Central and Eastern Europe subsequently shared his experience with the green reconstruction and installation of Horenka hospital and Kostiantyn Krynytskyi, Head of the Energy Department at Ecoaction, presented on Ukrainian NGOs’ advocacy for the “greening” of Ukraine’s emergency energy aid. During the conference Senior Expert in Infrastructure and Energy System at German Energy Agency (dena), Yannick Severin dos Santos also presented an overview of Building a Resilient and Decentralized Electricity Distribution System. The series of presentations ended with the introduction of a new upcoming project of the International Climate Initiative (IKI): “Renewables for Resilient Ukraine – R2U”, by Nicolas Heger, Project Advisor at GIZ Ukraine.

The conference concluded with a discussion and Q&A regarding the role of decentralized energy sources and the roll-out of renewables in Ukraine’s current war-time context, as well as the pathways to building a more cost-optimal, green, resilient and economically competitive energy sector.