13.02.2025
The Energy Club, an association of leading companies in the Ukrainian energy sector, accepts the challenges of today and continues its development path even under martial law. We talk with Maksym Bielawski, Vice President of the Energy Club, about the results of work and achievements in 2024, plans and strategic directions of future activities.
– Mr. Bielawski, what three achievements of the Energy Club in 2024 do you consider the most significant?
– The scale of involvement of participants from all sectors of the Ukrainian energy market in the activities carried out by the Energy Club has significantly increased, and our audience has grown. And this is the first achievement. Along with this, the pace of dialogue and discussion has increased. In 2018, when I joined the Energy Club, we were just starting a series of events to make the industry’s professional dialogue as productive, specific and direct as possible. According to my observations, in 2024, as in the previous year, despite all the challenges that were, are and remain before the energy sector of our state, we in the Energy Club manage to find rational initiatives, provide useful recommendations in all areas of Ukraine’s energy policy. This is our second most important achievement. And finally, compared to 2023, the number of legislative changes has increased – both to regulatory acts and secondary legislation, and the activity of cooperation with the relevant committees of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine.
– What were the main challenges facing the Energy Club during the year, and how were they overcome?
– The lack of predictability is the main challenge we faced in 2024, forming the agenda of discussions, meetings, and discussions. In fact, during the war, no one can predict how this or that structure and equipment will work. In general, there were several challenges. In particular, the rapid change in the situation, including the regulatory and legal one, required rapid adaptation from market participants, and, accordingly, from the Energy Club. And rapid adaptation to changes required quite clear communication work and timely interaction with the market. It is important not to be late and to move synchronously with the market. In my opinion, the Energy Club succeeded in this.
– What initiatives does the club plan to implement in 2025?
– Expectations for 2025, taking into account all the initiatives of the president and the presidium of the Energy Club, are no less ambitious. Personally, I will do everything possible to ensure that the participants of our business association communicate about the digitalization of the energy sector – this is an extremely important area of discussion, and I would like to conduct it in a larger format; decentralization of both energy sources and the placement of generating capacities; and diversification of primary energy supply.
I would call this the rule of the three “D’s”: digitalization, decentralization and diversification. In my opinion, these focal points will help us solve the most global task – to guarantee the energy security of our state. And here it is worth remembering that energy security is a sufficient amount of raw materials (both primary and generated energy carriers), which is supplied through a reliable and stable infrastructure to liquid markets to which a solvent consumer has access.
Speaking of a solvent consumer and liquid markets, I mean the most important communication task that needs to be completed in 2025. If you want to get the minimum, strive for more. I would call this the motto of our team, because without setting ambitious goals, it would not be possible to achieve the number of public events and non-public working discussions that took place in 2024.
Sufficient attention should be paid to the issues of personnel training for industry specialists. But, of course, the main topic of our future meetings in 2025 remains the energy security of Ukraine, as well as the sufficiency of raw materials and the stable operation of infrastructure.
– How do you assess the contribution of the Energy Club to the formation of Ukraine’s energy policy?
– The Energy Club is heard. And this is the broadest and most complete reflection of our team achievement. What does it mean to be heard? They trust the community’s opinion, share its values, and develop together with the business association.
– What changes in the regulatory field, in your opinion, are promising for the development of the energy sector?
– When we talk about energy security, considering the main direction – the decentralization of generating capacities, we must first of all solve the issue of simplifying the construction of such facilities by revising the financial model, because many investments, unfortunately, are blocked precisely because of the imperfection of the regulatory policy. I am more than confident that these issues will be considered, successfully advocated and resolved in 2025. After all, without protecting investments in generation facilities from renewable energy sources, it will be very difficult to deploy a decentralized network of generating capacities. Yes, of course, gas turbine and gas piston plants will be built and launched, but we also need a curve that is formed by solar and wind power plants. Therefore, the proper number of such generating facilities and their commissioning directly depends on the perfection of the regulatory field. And this issue, without a doubt, will be the focus of attention during 2025. Moreover, energy security directly depends on decentralization, diversification and digitalization. All elements of the energy system must be smart and quickly adapt to changing situations. By the way, I think that a rather interesting topic for discussion will be the direction of demand management. This is a fairly common model mechanism for balancing the power grid by changing the consumption schedule of large industrial enterprises. I think we will pay attention to this topic, which means that Energy Club participants will initiate proposals for changes to the regulatory framework.
– What role does the Energy Club play in supporting and developing professionals in the energy sector?
– Since 2020, the Energy Club has gradually introduced discussions around the training of personnel. And each time these discussions became more professional and fulfilling. Over the past two years, the result of these discussions has been proposals for specific training programs, a substantive discussion about the number of specialists needed by the industry. That is, the mission to become a platform for direct open dialogue, including in the direction of personnel training, has been implemented by the Energy Club. And I can say this as a person who has been a member of the Energy Club for over 7 years. In my opinion, we managed, according to the principle of blockchain technologies, to establish a direct link between two audiences: educational institutions and manufacturing enterprises. The Energy Club not only provides direct dialogue, but also promotes professional development. The situation in the energy sector is changing so rapidly that it is very important to keep your finger on the pulse, and it is best to do this with the Energy Club business association. I see a concrete result and I am happy about it.
– What international projects and partnerships are priorities for the Energy Club in 2025?
– Approximately in the second half of 2018 – 2019, the president of the Energy Club Andriy Kostrytsia and I tried to develop the direction of innovative technologies in the energy sector. Unfortunately, the results were not so large-scale, but they turned out to be extremely useful for the future development of the Energy Club. Therefore, the involvement of innovative technologies, participation in the technical and technological development of the energy sector, in my opinion, is one of the priority international projects for the Energy Club. I hope the business association will adopt this in its work plan for 2025.
At the same time, we must remember that the war has been going on for 10 years. We resist, we fight, we will win, and for this we need very serious sanctions pressure. Therefore, probably the main international project should be active participation in the introduction of new sanctions programs against the enemy. We need to drain the aggressor of blood. And the developments of the Energy Club will contribute to this.
