09.09.2026
On September 17, Kyiv will host the Energy Club forum “Energy of Freedom: Sustainability and New Opportunities for the Energy Storage Systems Market in Ukraine”. Today, the issue of electricity storage for Ukraine has long gone beyond a purely technological discussion. BESS is becoming a tool for energy sustainability for enterprises and communities, a way to use their own generation more efficiently, and, most importantly, a new direction for private capital.
It is to the investment and practical side of the UZE market that the speech at the forum by Vitalii Shevchenko, CEO of the Panorama Group of Companies, Chairman of the Board of the Ukrainian Association of Energy Service Companies NGO, will be devoted. The topic of his speech is “UZE as an investment asset: where the economy already exists and how private capital can enter this market.”
On the eve of the forum, in an interview with Energy Club journalist Olena Karpachova, Vitalii Shevchenko told why the Ukrainian storage market is ready to move from individual batteries to systemic investment projects, where the BESS economy is being formed today, why predictability of cash flow is more important to investors than a beautiful payback figure, and how the war is changing the very approach to designing energy systems.
– Mr. Vitalii, energy storage systems in Ukraine are still a relatively new direction. To what extent, in your opinion, has this market already formed and what is currently hindering its development the most?
– I would say that the market for energy storage systems in Ukraine has already formed at the level of demand and understanding of the technology, but has not yet become a mature investment market.
Businesses are increasingly considering BESS not as additional equipment for a solar power plant, but as a separate energy management tool. For an enterprise, the storage device can simultaneously provide backup power, reduce costs, increase the efficiency of its own generation and, depending on the model, create additional income.
The main limitation today is not so much the cost of the technology as the lack of clear and scalable business models. An investor must clearly see where the income comes from, who generates it, how predictable it is, and what risks affect the return on capital.
Therefore, the next stage of market development is the transition from individual installed batteries to system investment projects. An investor is not buying a battery. He is buying a predicted cash flow with controlled risk.
– Panorama Group of Companies has experience in implementing solar power plants. How has customer demand for solar power plants changed after the advent of storage systems? Is BESS becoming an integral part of new projects?
– Demand has definitely changed. If earlier the conversation started with the question “which solar power plant can we install?”, today the client is increasingly asking: “how can we manage our own energy and reduce dependence on the grid?”
This is where BESS comes in. Solar generation produces electricity when there is sun, and the storage allows you to transfer its use to the moment when the enterprise really needs energy.
At the same time, BESS should not automatically be part of every solar power plant. The decision depends on the consumption profile, the operating mode of the enterprise, the cost of electricity, the possibility of using the stored energy and a specific financial model.
Therefore, today it is more correct to look not at the solar power plant or BESS separately, but at the entire energy system of the enterprise as a single project.
– What business models for storage systems do you consider to be the most promising in Ukraine today: work on the balancing market, price arbitrage, combination with solar generation or ensuring the autonomy of enterprises?
– I would not single out one universally best model. The Ukrainian market is interesting in that several sources of economic effect can operate simultaneously.
For large systems, market mechanisms are promising – balancing and price arbitrage. For enterprises with significant consumption, BESS can optimize electricity purchases and manage peak loads. For facilities with solar power plants, storage increases the share of own generation consumption.
I would separately highlight energy sustainability. In Ukrainian conditions, the ability of an enterprise to continue operating during power outages has economic value in itself.
Therefore, the right question is not which BESS model to choose, but what problem are we solving and from what sources the economic effect is formed.
– What is most interesting to an investor considering a Ukrainian BESS project today: the payback period, market rules, investment return guarantees or, above all, safety?
– An investor looks at the project comprehensively, but I would put the clarity of the cash flow, not the payback period itself, in the first place.
It is important to understand who pays for whatsee how the income is formed, how predictable it is, and what will happen to the project in an unfavorable scenario.
In Ukraine, a security factor is added to this. But war risk does not mean an automatic rejection of the investment. It means that the risk must be built into the financial model, technical solution, and structure of the project.
A good investment project is not one that shows maximum profitability in the base scenario, but one that retains economic sense even when some of the assumptions are not met.
High profitability on the slide does not make a project good. A good project can withstand a negative scenario.
– Is the current regulatory framework sufficient to actively attract investments in storage systems? What regulatory changes do you think are needed first?
– Ukraine has already taken important steps to form the legal framework for storage systems: the technology is defined as a separate element of the electricity system, and separate regulatory rules have been formed for storage activities.
But to fully scale the market, an investor needs predictability of economic conditions. It is important not only to be able to install a battery, but also to understand how the asset works in the market, what services it can provide, how income is generated, and what rules will apply over the investment horizon.
This is especially critical for large projects, where it is no longer about equipment, but about significant private capital and long-term investment.
When an investor understands the rules of the game, he can calculate the risk. When the rules are not well-defined, even a very good technology does not automatically become a good investment asset.
For capital, the most important thing is not that the rules are perfect, but that they are understandable and predictable.
– What role can storage systems play in ensuring the energy sustainability of communities? Can BESS become a practical solution for hospitals, water utilities, schools and other critical facilities?
– I consider this direction to be one of the most practical for Ukraine.
We work a lot with communities and critical infrastructure and see that the issue is no longer limited to saving electricity. For a hospital, water utility or other critical enterprise, the reliability of energy supply can be no less important than the price of a kilowatt-hour.
BESS can work together with solar generation, backup sources and a load management system. As a result, we get not just a battery, but a local energy system that can operate more autonomously.
I see the prospect of developing energy islands in communities – solutions for a specific enterprise or group of critical consumers. And such projects do not necessarily have to be financed only from the budget: with the right economy, some of them can be financed by private capital.
For critical infrastructure, a kilowatt-hour that is not available during a shutdown sometimes costs much more than a kilowatt-hour from the network.
– You work with communities within the ESCO model. Can the energy service mechanism be used to finance energy storage and solar generation projects?
– Yes, potentially energy services can be used for such projects, but it is important not to try to fit each facility to one model.
ESCOs work where there is a clear economic effect that can be predicted and tied to the investment. If the solar power plant and BESS provide predicted savings or other stable economic results, this can be the basis for an energy service agreement.
But we need to look more broadly: ESCOs are only one of the mechanisms for attracting private capital to energy infrastructure.
In one case, an ESCO will work, in another, a joint investment, in the third, a separate energy asset that produces and supplies energy to a specific consumer. The task of the market is not to sell one model to everyone, but to choose the right financial structure for a specific need.
– The Ukrainian market has special conditions – war risks, infrastructure damage, unstable energy supply. How does this affect the choice of technologies and the financial model of BESS projects?
– The war has actually changed the very logic of designing energy systems.
Previously, the main question could be “how much will we save?”. Today, a second one is necessarily added: “what will happen to the enterprise if there is no electricity for several hours or longer?”.
Therefore, we must consider not only economic efficiency, but also the sustainability of the system. This affects the BESS configuration, the ratio of generation and storage, backup sources, autonomous mode and the overall architecture of the facility.
The financial model must also take into account war risk. An investment project cannot be built only according to the best scenario. It is necessary to model different scenarios and check whether the project remains economically viable in more difficult conditions.
In Ukraine, sustainability is no longer an additional option to the economics of the project. It’s part of the economy itself.
– What are the most common mistakes customers make when planning to install solar power?ntion or storage system? What do you recommend paying attention to before starting the design?
– The most common mistake is to start with the equipment. The customer chooses the manufacturer, battery capacity or number of solar panels, and only then tries to understand why the company needs the system.
I recommend starting with a consumption analysis: load profile, peaks, share of own generation consumption, outage risks and possible economic effect.
And only after that move on to the technical solution and financial model. First you need to answer the question “what exactly do we want to get from the project?”, and only then – which battery or solar station to install.
First – data and economics. Then – equipment.
– What do you expect from the Energy of Freedom forum on September 17? What outcome of the discussion, in your opinion, would be really important for the further development of the energy storage market in Ukraine?
– I would like us to go beyond the conversation about how promising BESS technology is. This is already obvious.
The next question is how to scale this market. This requires three things: clear rules, well-prepared projects and capital ready to enter them.
We already see that a private investor is ready to finance energy projects in Ukraine. But for scaling, it is not enough to simply find money. You need projects with predictable economics, understandable risks and a model that works in real conditions.
Therefore, I would like us to talk during this discussion not only about the number of installed megawatts and megawatt-hours, but about how to create a market in which private capital will systematically invest in the energy sustainability of Ukraine.
The next stage of the BESS market is not just more batteries. It is the emergence of a new class of investment energy assets.
The Ukrainian market for energy storage systems is now at an important crossroads. The technology is no longer exotic, and the need for it is theoretical. The question now is whether Ukraine will be able to transform this demand into a large-scale, understandable and attractive market for investors.
The answer depends not only on the cost of batteries or the pace of technology development. It is in the rules of the game, the quality of projects, the ability of business to calculate the economy for several scenarios in advance and the readiness of capital to work with Ukrainian risks.
That is why the future of BESS in Ukraine is about how accumulated energy can be transformed into sustainability, economic value and new investment opportunities.
If the first stage of market development was to prove the need for accumulation, then the next one should provide an answer to a much more difficult question: how to make the energy that we have learned to store start working for the restoration and economic freedom of Ukraine.
This is what the participants of the Energy Club forum “Energy of Freedom” will talk about on September 17 in Kyiv.
