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UWEA AT THE IV ENERGY LAW CONFERENCE

For the fourth consecutive year, the UWEA has been an active participant in the Energy Law Conferences, an initiative organized by the Ukrainian Bar Association.

This year's IV Energy Law Conference, held in Kyiv on July 5th, 2024, served as a forum for discussing critical challenges and opportunities currently facing the Ukrainian energy sector.

The focus of the discussions was on the following issues:

• Energy Independence. Ways to achieve it, increase gas production, and develop renewable energy sources;
• European Integration. How the negotiations on joining the EU affect the energy sector and what steps still need to be taken in terms of European integration;
• Strategic Plans. Implementation of the Energy Strategy of Ukraine until 2050 and expectations from the National Energy and Climate Plan 2025-2030;
• New Market Mechanisms: launching REMIT,the market coupling mechanism, as well as guarantees of origin; judicial practice regarding settlements in the market;
• Wind Energy Development: prospects in the conditions of the free electricity market.

According to Andriy Gerus, the Head of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Energy and Housing and Communal Services, “an auction to support the construction of the first 100 MW of new RES capacity, the so-called “green” auction, may take place this year.”

Oleksandr Martyniuk, the chief expert on renewable energy of the USAID Energy Security Project, addressed that the register of guarantees of origin of energy will be ready next week, and training of parties concerned on how to use it will begin in early August.

Special attention was paid to the role of wind energy in ensuring the country’s energy independence and decarbonizing its economy. In his speech, Andriy Konechenkov, Chairman of the Board of UWEA, emphasized the importance of creating a favorable investment climate and drafting the regulatory framework for rebuilding the energy system of Ukraine and accelerating the development of renewable energy sources.

Andriy Konechenkov: “The loss of 10 GW of traditional energy capacity can be fully compensated by new distributed generation capacity, in particular,4 GW of wind generation, which can be integrated into the grid already as early as 2025-2027. Wind turbines can be installed at a rate that outpaces the lengthy reconstruction or new construction of fossil fuel generation. Unfortunately, it is impossible to replace all the destroyed energy infrastructure with new wind farms today, but it is they that can partially improve the situation with electricity supply in the country. Wind farms are more resistant to enemy attacks due to the large distance between wind turbines and their number, it is impossible to destroy the entire station. At the same time, for the status of existing projects to change from “ready to build” to “under construction”, existing legislative barriers must be removed and debt issues existing in the RES market must be resolved.”