07.08.2026
In his personal blog, Serhiy Yermilov – Minister of Fuel and Energy of Ukraine in 2000–2001 and 2002–2004, former Head of the National Agency of Ukraine for Ensuring the Efficient Use of Energy Resources, Honored Power Engineer of Ukraine – completes a series of author’s publications dedicated to the future architecture of the Ukrainian power system.
Over the course of eight articles, the author consistently built a vision of the transformation of the Unified Power System of Ukraine – from the traditional centralized model to a digital, decentralized Smart Grid, capable of ensuring the stability of the state in new security and technological realities.
In the final, eighth part, Serhiy Yermilov draws attention to perhaps the most important challenge of this transformation. The main problem will not be the lack of technology or financing, but the lack of people who will be able to design, implement and ensure the operation of a new generation power system. The author actually poses a strategic question to the state: who will create the Unified Energy System-2031 and what decisions need to be made today so that Ukraine receives not just a restored, but a fundamentally new energy infrastructure.
Epilogue. About the main problem for the transformation and reconstruction of a new energy system.
You can draw an ideal architecture with IEC 61850, CIM, ADMS, DERMS, VPP, Zero Trust and post-quantum cryptography, but a simple question remains:
Who will design, implement, operate and repair it? How to assemble that “Star Team” that will be able to implement all this?
After ensuring basic financing, it is the human resource capacity that may become the main limitation of the pace of the transformation of the Unified Energy System-2031”
In fact, Ukraine needs a new engineering industry.
Not just energy. And the new professional ecosystem is at the intersection of:
That is, people who simultaneously understand:
I will name the key professions and competencies that need to be taken care of as a priority:
System architects
This is a think tank.
Approximately 80-100 people of the highest level are needed.
Competencies: power systems; grid modernization; utility architecture; CIM; IEC 61850; ENTSO-E; utility telecom.
Their task: not to build, but to design the system as a single whole.
Power engineers
The largest group.
Areas: substations; power lines; protection and protection; operational and dispatching management; DER integration; power quality.
Utility Telecom Engineers
Without them, the Smart Grid does not exist.
Needed: IP/MPLS; DWDM; packet transport; synchronization; utility communications.
In fact, this is a separate industry.
SCADA / ADMS / DERMS Engineers
The biggest shortage.
Specialists who understand: energy; automation; programming.
They are the ones who create the digital layer of the system.
Energy Cyber Command
Not just IT-security. Exactly OT-security.
Needed: specialists in IEC 62351; industrial cybersecurity; incident response; threat intelligence; SOC; digital substations.
Software & Data Engineers
A separate category. The future of energy will be software-defined.
Needed: backend developers; distributed systems engineers; AI engineers; GIS engineers; data architects.
Integrators
The most valuable people. Those who can put everything together. Who know: power grid; automation; telecom; cybersecurity; business processes.
Educational mobilization
In fact, the training program:
Who could become the core
The core of the future team should consist of representatives of:
Conclusions:
Frankly speaking, the issue of rebuilding and transforming the Unified Power System goes far beyond technology and resources. It is already about the institutional capacity of the state. The state level, and this is the top leadership – the President, the Verkhovna Rada, the Government, and they no longer have the time or the choice to do or not do this program.
I intentionally did not raise the questions here that are most discussed at government meetings and in the public space:
This will be the easiest task compared to the problem of creating the first large-scale sustainable decentralized energy system in Europe, which will become a powerful infrastructure capable of supporting the new economy of the state. And we are not even talking only about energy. The infrastructure created on the basis of energy networks should also become the backbone of the future agent economy, where millions of AI agents manage transport, healthcare, industry and the public sector.
I also deliberately did not outline the CAPEX/OPEX cost indicators and income and payback models.
First, this issue directly depends on the implementation terms that the state must determine for itself. If the state considers this issue strategic and priority, then the sources of financing should be not only market.
Secondly, the volume of investments will depend on the strategy of the depth of transformation and its pace. If, for example, DSOs independently move at their own discretion according to the degree of availability of resources to them, which are RAB tariffs, then the implementation of Smart Grid by 2032 will be unlikely, since, according to experts, the full digitalization of one DSO is from 1 billion euros and above. That is why state decisions are needed, since any timeline is valid only if the state financing program is adopted and further adhered to.
The problem is that the question “Who will design, build and operate the UES-2031?” does not belong to the competence of one person. It lies at the intersection of energy, education, digitalization, security, defense and industrial policy.
Who should be asked this question by office?
Ministers of Energy, Digital Transformation and the Minister of Economy of Ukraine
The ministries must initiate the reform and prove its necessity at the highest level. This should be a comprehensive state program with appropriate legislative and regulatory support and funding, and MOST IMPORTANTLY, political will for implementation.
The Ministry of Energy should also provide answers about: generation; capacity balance; network restoration; funding volumes.
The Ministry of Energy should unite people who are responsible for the daily operation of the system:
Ukrenergo NPC Management
It is the TSO that will be forced to live in this new architecture:
If anyone in Ukraine should be thinking about the UES-2031 today, it is the Ukrenergo management and its technical unit.
Head of the National Electricity Regulatory Commission
Without a regulator, there will be no role of aggregator; there will be no flexibility markets; there will be no tariffs for a new type of DSO; there will be no incentives for digitalization.
It is the National Electricity Regulatory Commission that actually determines whether a DSO will become a “cable operator” or an “active distribution system operator”.
In conclusion, I will state the main thesis of the entire analysis presented:
The future of the Ukrainian energy sector will be determined not only by the restoration of lost facilities and megawatts, but also by the system’s ability to withstand external threats and effectively, reliably and safely integrate and coordinate millions of distributed generation sources, storage devices, electric vehicles, microgrids and active consumers.
Sergiy Yermilov – Minister of Fuel and Energy of Ukraine in 2000–2001 and 2002–2004, former Head of the National Agency of Ukraine for Ensuring the Efficient Use of Energy Resources, Honored Power Engineer of Ukraine
