Ukraine’s reconstructed electricity system will be more decentralised and digitalised and will have a high focus on renewables, the country’s leaders say.
In his annual presidential address to the Ukrainian parliament on 28 December, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said, Ukraine had set a goal to become “a leader in the transformation of our energy sector to counter any threats, any challenges – military, political, economic or even climatic. We have to become – and we will become, as there is no other option – a leader in building modern green energy. This will allow us to create a decentralized energy system that cannot be destroyed by anything, any missile strikes.”
He said that, “everyone can see – it is dangerous when cities depend on several large thermal or power plants. A modern city needs decentralized sources of energy. Only green energy can really provide this.”
He named infrastructure and energy among the sectors that do not meet modern security requirements and said that Ukraine’s experience would make it “a leader in the digital transformation of our state and society”.
Zelensky stressed that Ukraine saw its strength in the energy sector as a post-war asset: “Having a leadership position in such energy and developing our atomic generation, as well as hydrogen energy, we will be able to provide for the needs of Ukraine, and in peacetime – the needs of Europe” saying “this will be a historic strengthening of Ukraine’s role in Europe. We can, and therefore must, become one of the guarantors of European energy security.”
He suggested that the cost of the system’s reconstruction was equally an investment opportunity and said priority would be to companies who had “supported Ukraine during the war and which left the Russian market”.
In a cabinet meeting on 3 January Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal reiterated that new reliance on distributed energy, according to a Reuters report, which quoted him as saying “Plans for the decarbonisation of energy and the green transformation remain relevant. The war has made these challenges even more urgent. We will use the potential of renewable energy – solar, wind, hydrogen generation, hydrogen technologies – more actively. The Russian attacks push us towards fundamental reform – building a decentralised energy system. It will be less vulnerable to enemy attacks.”