Of the construction of 1 GW of shunting generation announced by President Volodymyr Zelensky, only about 60 MW have been built so far. This was stated by the former head of “Ukrenergo” Volodymyr Kudrytskyi in interview “Economic truth”.
At the Ukraine Recovery Conference 2024 in June, Zelensky announced that Ukraine, with the support of international partners, plans to build 1 gigawatt of gas-fired shunting power generation by the end of 2024 and another 4 gigawatts in the coming years.
At the beginning of September, the Minister of Energy Herman Galushchenko said that Ukraine has already installed hundreds of megawatts of the 1 GW of generation planned by Zelenskyi. According to him, the equipment is financed for 600 MW.
However, Volodymyr Kudrytskyi noted that the figures provided by Galushchenko are ten times overstated. He clarified that the actual built capacity is only about 60 MW.
“I have other data. Maybe hundreds were built in the last 2-3 days, but I know, for example, a figure of the order of 60 MW”, – emphasized Kudrytskyi.
According to him, Ukrenergo has a clear understanding of how much and which capacities need to be built: 3 GW of maneuvering power on gas or biomass, 4 GW of solar plants, up to 5 GW of wind energy and 1 GW of battery energy storage systems. The total cost of this project, according to Kudrytskyi, is about 10 billion euros and should be financed by private business.
Kudrytskyi also recalled that the plans for the construction of 300 GW of new capacities, presented to Western partners for the amount of 400 billion euros, remained unrealized.
Promotion of alternative generation in Ukraine
In view of the large-scale destruction of the energy infrastructure due to Russian shelling, the National Energy and Utilities Regulatory Commission simplified the connection of gas turbine, gas piston and cogeneration plants to the networks in May. The government has also removed a number of bureaucratic procedures to simplify the installation of such installations and related networks.
In addition, the Cabinet of Ministers is working on the decentralization of the energy system and is discussing the supply of diesel generators, cogeneration plants and mobile boilers, focusing on the frontline regions.
