31.08.2026
International engineering and manufacturing company RSE has opened the Energy Resilience Lab, a unique laboratory of solutions for Ukraine’s energy resilience, at Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute. The new educational and research space is intended to be a place where future energy professionals will be able to gain not only theoretical knowledge, but also practical experience working with modern energy technologies.
In the laboratory, energy students from all over Ukraine will be able to learn how to work with modern energy equipment, explore decentralized generation technologies, and gain practical experience working with solutions that are already being used at real energy facilities implemented by RSE across the country.
RSE is an international engineering and manufacturing company that develops and implements comprehensive energy solutions for industry and critical infrastructure. The company’s portfolio includes cogeneration systems based on MWM gas engines, FG Wilson diesel power solutions, Olympian generator sets – a Caterpillar brand that RSE represents in the US market, as well as industrial heat pumps and chillers of its own production.
RSE also integrates energy storage systems (BESS) and various generation, heating and cooling technologies into unified energy systems. It is the technologies and engineering solutions that the company applies in real energy projects that have become the basis of the practical part of the Energy Resilience Lab.
“Today, Ukraine needs not only new energy capacities, but also engineers who know how to manage them. We wanted to create a place where students would work not with abstract models, but with technologies and tasks that energy professionals already face today at real facilities,” says RSE founder Andriy Grinenko.
Modern equipment for practical training
RSE, together with MWM (Caterpillar Energy Solutions), provided modern training equipment for the Energy Resilience Lab. In particular, the laboratory received a MWM TCG 2016 generator set with a capacity of 600 kW, desktop automation simulators, software simulators for engine simulation, and an advanced simulator for synchronizing a cogeneration unit with the grid.
This equipment allows students to practice the key principles of modern energy systems: control and adjustment of generating equipment, automation, modeling of various operating modes, as well as synchronization and interaction of the installation with the electrical grid.
Thus, future specialists will have the opportunity to work not only with theoretical models, but also with technologies and tasks that are as close as possible to those that power engineers encounter at real facilities.
It is also important that similar training equipment is used at the MWM training center in Mannheim, Germany, where energy industry specialists from different countries of the world undergo professional training and certification.
“It is extremely important to build the educational process so that future specialists study on the latest generation equipment and from the first days of training are maximally immersed in the context of the industry – communicate with professionals from the field, think about solving practical, not theoretical problems. Energy Resilience Lab provides such an opportunity. In a few years, students who will begin their studies on the basis of the laboratory will develop the energy sector of Ukraine, in which a significant role will be assigned to distributed generation,” commented Anatoly Melnychenko, rector of Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute.
Teachers trained in Germany
An important component of the project was the training of KPI teachers who will work with students in the Energy Resilience Lab.
In the fall of 2025, ten teachers underwent specialized technical training at the MWM educational center in Mannheim. After returning to Kyiv, they adapted the knowledge they gained to the Ukrainian curriculum.
With the support of the German Society for International Cooperation GIZ, which also joined the project within the framework of the Igor Sikorsky KPI Energy Innovation Hub, the program was expanded and an academic course “Cogeneration Plants for Sustainable Energy Supply” was formed.
Within the framework of this course, energy students will be able to combine theoretical training with practical work directly on the Energy Resilience Lab equipment.
This approach should allow future specialists to immerse themselves in the real context of the energy industry, communicate with professionals and work on practical tasks during their studies.
The Laboratory as a Model for Scaling
The project model provides for the possibility of further scaling. This involves the dissemination of the training course to other universities and vocational education institutions, as well as the use of the Energy Resilience Lab as a platform for practical training of students from all over the country.
To create the Energy Resilience Lab, RSE equipped a modern two-story training space with a total area of 257 m². The laboratory is designed for simultaneous training of up to 20 energy students and combines training areas with platforms for practical work with equipment.
In the conditions of war, energy autonomy has become critically important for Ukrainian cities and communities. Therefore, the laboratory was created as a space where future specialists will be able to gain practical skills in working with modern decentralized and backup energy supply systems.
The technological and training base of the Energy Resilience Lab will continue to expand and update in accordance with the development of energy technologies and the emergence of new engineering solutions.
From education and science to practical solutions
Energy Resilience Lab will also become a platform for engineering and research work. The laboratory model combines education, science, business and municipalities – from training engineers and researching new technologies to their practical application in communities and critical infrastructure facilities.
Thus, the laboratory should become not just a training facility with modern equipment, but an environment in which knowledge, research and engineering practice will be combined with the real needs of Ukrainian communities and energy infrastructure.
The project aims to form one of the key training centers in Ukraine in the field of cogeneration, decentralized and autonomous energy on the basis of the laboratory.
The creation of such a laboratory is an important step towards the formation of a new generation of Ukrainian energy specialists who will have not only theoretical knowledge, but also practical experience working with technologies of distributed generation, cogeneration, backup energy supply, and integration of various energy solutions into a single system.
