25.08.2026
Law No. 4777-IX, which entered into force in March 2026, significantly changed the rules of the game for participants in the energy market — from connection to electricity networks and the development of distributed generation to the operation of active consumers and energy storage facilities. The next step was the practical implementation of these provisions: on 11 August the National Energy and Utilities Regulatory Commission (NEURC) approved a package of amendments to key regulatory acts, most of which will take effect as early as 1 September.
For businesses, this means new opportunities, but at the same time new requirements for the design, connection, commercial metering, and organization of the operation of energy facilities. The changes are especially important for projects that combine generation, consumption, and storage of electric energy.
To find out exactly what is changing and how the new rules will work in practice, Energy Club turned to the legal and consulting firm Fedotov&Partners.
Attorney and Head of the Energy Business Support Practice Inna Yakubovska and lawyer Olha Liashchuk explained the 10 key innovations that energy market participants should take into account already at the stage of planning and implementing their projects.
The regulator approved a new approach to determining connection parameters, under which the capacity for offtake and the capacity for injection of electric energy are determined separately. The relevant provisions are set out in the Transmission System Code, the Distribution Systems Code, and the Methodology (Procedure) for Setting the Fee for Connection to the Transmission System and Distribution Systems.
The new model divides the user’s capacity into:
This is of the greatest significance for facilities that simultaneously consume and generate electric energy. For example, an enterprise planning to install a cogeneration unit (CHP), a solar power plant (SPP), or an energy storage system (ESS) requires both the offtake of electricity from the grid and the injection of surplus own generation — and now these two parameters receive independent regulatory treatment.
The key innovation of the package was flexible connection to electricity networks. The relevant changes were introduced primarily into the Distribution Systems Code.
The essence of the mechanism lies in combining guaranteed and non-guaranteed capacity. Guaranteed capacity is available to the user regardless of the current operating mode of the network. The use of non-guaranteed capacity, in turn, depends on the availability of the corresponding reserve and may be limited when the operating parameters of the power hub approach the limits of operational safety; flexible-connection automation is applied for this purpose.
Flexible connection, therefore, does not mean incomplete access to the network. It is a different model for using its transmission capacity: part of the ordered capacity is guaranteed, while the rest may be used subject to the availability of a network reserve and the user’s readiness for automatic limitation of the offtake and/or injection of electric energy.
At the same time, this mechanism is not available to every applicant. Under clause 4.3.13.1 of the Distribution Systems Code, an application to the DSO regarding the application of flexible connection and the introduction of corresponding amendments to the technical conditions may be submitted by an applicant for a non-standard connection service with a capacity exceeding 1 MW, involving the design and performance of construction, installation, and commissioning works to create the capacity, provided that the voltage at the connection point is 20 kV or higher. Such an application is submitted after the technical conditions for connection enter into force and on the basis of developed project documentation. Flexible connection may be applied on a permanent or temporary basis — pending the implementation of the relevant technical measures.
For flexible connection to be applied, the amount of ordered non-guaranteed capacity must fall within the non-guaranteed capacity reserve of the relevant power hub, and the sum of guaranteed and non-guaranteed capacity must correspond to the total amount of ordered capacity for the relevant direction specified in the connection application and the technical conditions.
Where an applicant submits such a request and the conditions established by the Law and the Code are met, the DSO has no right to refuse to amend the technical conditions to provide for the application of flexible connection.
No less important an innovation of Law No. 4777-IX was the regulation of joint connection. The relevant provisions were incorporated into the Transmission System Code, approved by NEURC Resolution No. 309 of 14 March 2018, and the Distribution Systems Code, approved by NEURC Resolution No. 310 of 14 March 2018.
The mechanism allows the use of a shared power distribution/transmission point (hereinafter — SPDTP) for several electrical installations. Different types of installations may operate within such a scheme: generating units, energy storage systems (hereinafter — ESS), and the consumer’s electrical installations. The Commercial Metering Code of Electric Energy was amended accordingly: it now provides for the creation of separate commercial metering points (hereinafter — CMP) at the points where the consumer’s electrical installations connect to the ESS networks, and for the organization of the corresponding metering.
The updated regulation also defines the status of the scheme’s participants. The concept of an SPDTP sub-user has been introduced, which — depending on the structure of the project — may be a producer, an ESS operator, or a consumer (other than a household or collective household consumer) whose electrical installations are connected exclusively to the internal power-supply process networks of the SPDTP’s principal user.
At the same time, the service of connecting the electrical installations of a future sub-user to the internal power-supply process networks of the SPDTP’s principal user is provided by the DSO on the basis of a tripartite connection agreement, the parties to which are the DSO, the SPDTP’s principal user, and the applicant — the future SPDTP sub-user.
Joint connection, however, requires a clear regulation of the relationship between the SPDTP’s principal user and the sub-user. The sub-user’s access to the shared point through the internal power-supply process networks of the principal user is formalized by a separate agreement.
Such an agreement must define, in particular, the algorithm for allocating the permitted injection and offtake capacity, the procedure for calculating the electric energy balance, the coordination of injection and offtake schedules, the procedure for calculating electric energy losses, as well as the grounds and procedure for terminating the sub-user’s power supply.
Under the updated Commercial Metering Code of Electric Energy, for the commercial metering sites of the SPDTP’s principal user and its sub-users, the commercial boundary is established at the shared power distribution/transmission point. At the same time, sub-users are obliged to initiate the creation of CMPs and commercial metering sites for all electrical installations belonging to them that use the shared point, and to ensure commercial metering of electric energy for such sites.
As a result, several energy facilities may jointly use a single network infrastructure. This is particularly relevant for complex projects that combine generation, ESS, and the consumption of electric energy.
The changes have made it possible to settle accounts for electric energy produced by an active consumer under the self-generation mechanism without applying netting. The relevant provisions were introduced into the Electricity Market Rules (EMR), approved by NEURC Resolution No. 312 of 14 March 2018, and into the Procedure for the Sale and Metering of Electric Energy Produced by Active Consumers, and Settlements Therefor, approved by NEURC Resolution No. 2651 of 29 December 2023.
Separate rules have been established for business entities under the simplified system of taxation, accounting, and reporting: such active consumers may, by agreement of the parties, settle accounts for injected and offtaken electric energy without netting.
If, for a billing period (month), the parties have reached such an agreement, then:
The netting mechanism itself has also been elaborated in greater detail, in particular with regard to electric energy produced by third parties’ generating units connected to the grid or to the active consumer’s electrical installations.
For this category of active consumers, therefore, the regulations provide for two settlement options under the self-generation mechanism: with the application of netting or, by agreement of the parties, by way of separate payment for the value of the injected and offtaken electric energy.
An ESS operator has the right to use electrical installations intended for the production of electric energy at the site where it carries out its licensed energy-storage activity, without obtaining a separate license for the production of electric energy, provided that the capacity limits and the organization of separate commercial metering established by law are complied with.
At the same time, at any given moment the capacity at which electric energy is injected into the DSO’s/TSO’s networks, or offtaken from such networks, must not exceed the corresponding existing permitted injection or offtake capacity at the connection point.
Separately regulated is the possibility for ESS operators to supply electric energy to a consumer’s electrical installations that share a common connection point to the DSO’s networks or to the networks of the transmission system operator (hereinafter — TSO).
Under clause 2.4.7 of the EMR, this is permitted provided that commercial metering is organized in accordance with the requirements of the Commercial Metering Code of Electric Energy. The sale of electric energy is carried out on the basis of a purchase-and-sale agreement and does not require a license to supply electric energy to the consumer.
In practice, this opens the way to using an ESS as an element of a local model of consumer power supply.
The new rules expand the application of the backup power supply mechanism: producers of electric energy from alternative energy sources may now supply electric energy not only to their own electrical installations, but also to the electrical installations of related persons.
The sale of electric energy to a related person under a backup power supply agreement is, in this case, not regarded as the supply of electric energy to a consumer and does not require the producer to obtain a separate supply license.
The mechanism may be used only subject to compliance with the conditions established by the EMR regarding the location and connection scheme of the relevant electrical installations, the organization of commercial metering, and the avoidance of simultaneous power supply to the related person’s electrical installations from both the producer and the TSO’s or DSO’s networks.
The new regulation thus provides groups of related enterprises with an additional tool for organizing backup power supply without licensing, subject to strict compliance with technical and organizational requirements.
The updated Commercial Metering Code of Electric Energy introduces the concept of a “complex commercial metering site.” This is a site that contains at least two types of electrical installations for the production, consumption, and/or storage of electric energy in the relevant combination, or a site whose commercial metering data is determined on the basis of two or more physical commercial metering points using the relevant algorithms.
In this way, the regulatory model goes beyond the traditional “grid — consumer” scheme and takes into account the more complex interaction between the grid, consumption, generation, and ESS.
For enterprises that combine several energy facilities, this has direct practical significance: commercial metering must make it possible to determine how much electric energy has been produced, how much has been consumed, how much has been injected into the grid, and what volumes have been directed to, or offtaken from, the ESS.
The Commercial Metering Code of Electric Energy also regulates the specifics of metering for electrical installations belonging to different network users — producers, energy storage system operators, and consumers — that use a shared power distribution/transmission point.
Separate requirements have been established for producers of electric energy from alternative sources for their own consumption, producers that use an ESS, ESS operators, and also for complex commercial metering sites.
In such cases, metering must ensure the separate determination of the offtake and injection volumes of electric energy for each relevant electrical installation. For this purpose, separate commercial metering sites are created and separate metering units are installed.
Offtake and injection volumes are determined at the commercial boundary for each site on the basis of data from the relevant metering units, taking into account electric energy losses in network elements between the measurement points and the commercial boundary.
The situation is also regulated in which a producer uses an ESS and offtakes electric energy into it from its own generating units, from another producer’s networks, or from the TSO’s or DSO’s networks: in such a case, separate commercial metering must be ensured for the electric energy flowing to and from the ESS.
For projects that involve generation, storage, and consumption at the same time, this means one thing: the structure of commercial metering and the separate measurement points must be planned in advance, already at the design stage. Only in this way is it possible to correctly determine the volumes of electric energy that are offtaken, injected, and that flow between individual electrical installations within a complex scheme.
The changes covered not only the acts that directly regulate the connection procedure, but also the connection monitoring system, which must reflect the main parameters and progress of the relevant procedures.
In particular, the system now provides for a separate display of the type of connection — permanent, flexible permanent, and flexible temporary.
The possibility of dividing a connection record into queues has been regulated: where such a division is made, the system will automatically determine the sequence number of the queue and their total number.
The system has also been supplemented with information on injection capacity — a separate field has been provided for the amount of injection capacity ordered for connection, which is filled in on the basis of the connection application.
The updated monitoring system takes into account the new types of connection, the division of connection into queues, and separate injection-capacity parameters, which makes it possible to correctly reflect the new model for implementing energy projects.
The changes approved by NEURC mark a gradual transition from the traditional model of the power system, built around the separate roles of producer, consumer, and grid operator, to a considerably more flexible construct in which a single energy facility combines the consumption, generation, and storage of electric energy. The mechanisms of flexible and joint connection, the separate determination of offtake and injection capacity, new opportunities for active consumers and ESS operators, as well as the development of the commercial metering rules, create the regulatory basis for more complex and technologically more advanced energy projects.
Lawyer, Fedotov & partners law firm
Attorney, Head of Energy Business Support Practice, Fedotov & Partners law firm
