The Ukrainian electricity system has withstood unprecedented and targeted attacks by the Russian aggressor over the past two years. It has remained largely functional, even though there have been repeated temporary and localised power outages, such as during last winter. The coming winter will nevertheless be a challenge – around 50% of all power generation capacity has been damaged or destroyed and there is a shortage of spare parts, especially for specialised high-voltage electronics.

Rouven Stubbe, energy economist and consultant in the “Low Carbon Ukraine” project discussed these challenges at the event “Ukraine: Energy in the Spotlight Revisited” at the University of St Andrews on 23^rd of November. He argued that both electricity imports and increased decentralised power generation, particularly from rooftop solar systems with battery storage, could alleviate potential power generation deficits. However, commercial electricity imports have often been prevented by the electricity price caps on the Ukrainian wholesale electricity market – an electricity market reform should therefore aim to remove these hurdles.