29.06.2026
On June 18, Energy Club, in partnership with Phoenix Contact LLC and Huawei Ukraine LLC, held a forum of technical experts in Kyiv on networks, distributed generation, renewable energy, BESS, cogeneration, and practical solutions for energy sustainability “From Project to Megawatt: Engineering New Energy in Ukraine”.
One of the key speakers at the event was the head of Huawei’s Ukrainian Digital Power division, Oleksandr Alyokhin. He outlined the main technological trends in the development of energy storage systems (ESS), spoke about new requirements for the integration of solar generation, the prospects for grid-forming technology, the use of artificial intelligence in storage management, and also shared his vision of how the economics of investments in BESS will change in the coming years.
ESS are becoming an integral part of the new energy industry
Oleksandr Alokhin emphasized: today, energy storage systems are no longer a separate product and are increasingly becoming an integral part of solar, and later, wind generation. “By the end of the year, we will observe a transition from standalone systems to combined systems with the sun, and possibly even with wind,” he noted.
According to him, the construction of new solar power plants without storage is gradually losing economic sense: “It is not interesting to sell electricity generated from the sun without storage facilities now. There will be no question of building a solar power plant without a storage facility at all, because it will be commercially uninteresting to the investor.”
The speaker gave examples of international practice. In particular, the Middle East is already considering the use of eight- and even twelve-hour lithium-iron-phosphate storage batteries, which allow solar generation to operate even at night. At the same time, he emphasized that in Ukraine, the role of UZE will primarily consist in covering seasonal and daily fluctuations in electricity generation.
Comparing storage technologies, Oleksandr Alyokhin noted that pumped storage power plants remain an important component of the energy system, however, modern lithium-iron-phosphate batteries already provide cycle efficiency of over 90%, while for PSPs this indicator is lower. Modern equipment has a long service life: modern solar panels retain about 80% of their initial performance after 25 years of operation, and inverters are designed for more than two decades of operation.
The speaker paid special attention to the issues of disposal: “I am for reasonable regulation. In the European Union, there is already a mandatory disposal fee when importing equipment. There is no such mechanism in Ukraine yet, although proper recycling allows you to recover lithium, aluminum, copper and other materials, making this process economically feasible.
Grid-forming, artificial intelligence and an integrated approach
According to Oleksandr Alyokhin, the most important stage of any project is a competent technical task, because one and the same storage installation can perform more than twenty different functions.
He called grid-forming – network formation – one of the key technologies of the coming years: “The storage installation becomes a voltage source and begins to simulate the operation of conventional generators.”
This technology, according to him, will become mandatory after the implementation of the new edition of the European requirements RfG 2.0 and will significantly increase the resilience of power systems to emergency modes and prevent large-scale outages.
The speaker reported that Huawei has already introduced a new 506 kW solar inverter with a grid-forming function.
Another development direction, Alexander Alyokhin called the integration of solar generation and BESS on the low-voltage side, which allows reducing capital costs by approximately 4–8% due to the elimination of additional transformer substations.
At the same time, Huawei is actively developing intelligent storage management systems: “The system analyzes the weather forecast, consumption forecast, market prices “a day in advance” and automatically builds the optimal charge and discharge schedule. This allows to improve the efficiency of the entire system by at least 10%.
According to Alexander Alyokhin, the company also seeks to reduce the number of individual equipment manufacturers in the project as much as possible: “Who will be responsible for the workthat whole system? It will not be there.”
That is why he recommends using comprehensive Turnkey solutions from a single manufacturer or professional integrator, which avoid months of delays due to incompatibility of equipment from different suppliers.
Also, the head of Huawei’s Ukrainian Digital Power division drew attention to the development of aggregators and virtual power plants, which in the future will allow household consumers to be involved in balancing the power system without their direct participation.
Battery degradation: use today, not save for tomorrow
A separate section of the speech was devoted to battery degradation and the economics of their operation.
According to Oleksandr Alyokhin, degradation is a natural process, but its impact is often overestimated.
“The best option is to maximize the operation of the UZE in the first years, because in the future, as the number of storage devices increases, the profitability will decrease,” he said.
The head of the Ukrainian division of Digital Power Huawei explained that degradation depends on temperature, charge and discharge power, cycle depth, and battery charge level, but even deep cycles can be more economically profitable, since they allow for a larger volume of sold electricity precisely when the market is most profitable.
Aleksandr Alyokhin also discussed in detail possible options for augmenting storage devices. According to him, replacing individual cells will gradually lose relevance due to the rapid development of technologies and the emergence of new types of batteries. Instead, the most universal approach will be augmentation at the container or alternating current level, which will allow in the future to combine different storage technologies, in particular lithium and sodium batteries.
The speaker also noted Huawei’s active balancing system, which ensures uniform operation of all battery modules and allows for the most efficient use of its resource even during the aging process.
Summing up his speech, Oleksandr Alyokhin emphasized that the future of new energy will not be determined by individual technologies, but by their comprehensive integration. The combination of solar generation, energy storage systems, intelligent control, grid formation technology, virtual power plants and new market mechanisms should become the basis for a more flexible, cost-effective and sustainable energy system in Ukraine.
