19.03.2025
An innovative approach to company management has been implemented at JSC “Ukrainian Distribution Grids.” This was announced by the acting director general of the company, Artem Martyniuk, during the energy dialogue “Results of Winter 2024-2025 and Development Prospects – A Business Perspective” on the Energy Freedom talk show on March 14.
“After analyzing the situation, we decided to invest in smart grids, specifically in the digitization of networks. With the help of German partners, we purchased equipment. Everyone helped, and I would particularly like to highlight the role of Energy Club and its president, Andriy Kostrytsia,” he noted. “For several years, we asked our partners to provide the opportunity to purchase a software package because, in the conditions of constant shelling, we need to react quickly and model modes to manage them effectively. Thanks to Andriy Kostrytsia, we were understood, and today we are actively digitizing our networks. We are working on a service so that consumers have access to our model and can choose a point to install distributed generation with minimal costs. We also cooperate with NPC “Ukrenergo” – we have initiated a joint project to standardize the dispatcher names across Ukraine.”
Summarizing the past winter, the head of JSC “Ukrainian Distribution Grids,” which includes six distribution system operators in the front-line Kharkiv, Mykolaiv, and Zaporizhzhia, and in relatively stable Cherkasy, Ternopil, and Khmelnytskyi, reported significant losses: “The enemy, in the conditions of war, changed tactics and began to target large transformers of the distribution system operators. To date, within our company group alone, we have lost approximately 50 transformers. This is a critical figure for us, as the production of one transformer takes up to six months, and the cost of one is about 40 million hryvnias. Financially, we cannot cope with such expenses, and Ukrainian manufacturers are overwhelmed with orders. However, despite everything, we managed to stabilize the situation. Our group of companies has now implemented a mechanism for mutual assistance with personnel, transport, etc. Over the past two years, we have faced this situation twice: after massive enemy shelling, we provided assistance to Kharkiv and Zaporizhzhia. The damage caused by the enemy to the NPC “Ukrenergo” substation in Kharkiv became the basis for a council of technical directors to replace the transmission system operator’s networks and transmit the maximum amount of electricity through the DSO networks. We succeeded then, Kharkiv withstood, and today, despite constant shelling, this front-line city has a relatively stable power supply system.”
“There is an agreement with international partners to help compensate for the loss of transformers. So, we will be fully prepared by the start of the next heating season,” assured Artem Martyniuk. He also announced the signing of contracts between JSC “Ukrainian Distribution Grids” and the Central Design Institute of the Ministry of Defense for the development of protection systems, including the first improved intermediate standard for distribution networks.
