28.08.2026
Ukrainian energy in wartime conditions requires not only the restoration of damaged capacities, but also the transition to a new model – more decentralized, flexible and resistant to attacks. That is why cogeneration is increasingly becoming not a temporary emergency solution, but one of the key tools for modernizing the energy system.
One of the companies that has been directly involved in this process for several years is the Czech GENTEC CHP s.r.o. – a manufacturer of cogeneration, micro-cogeneration and trigeneration plants for operation on natural gas, biogas and other types of fuel. The company has its own engineering and production facilities in the Czech Republic and operates in many European markets, as well as in the USA and Canada.
Ukraine has become one of the important areas of work for GENTEC CHP. The company supplies cogeneration plants for industrial enterprises, municipal energy, hospitals and critical infrastructure facilities. In 2025, GENTEC made the largest single delivery to Ukraine at that time – ten plants with a total capacity of 25 MW, intended, in particular, for hospitals, schools and critical infrastructure.
The owner and CEO of GENTEC CHP s.r.o. told Energy Club journalist Olena Karpachova about how Ukrainian demand for distributed generation is changing, why a cogeneration plant is fundamentally different from a conventional backup generator, what challenges today most hinder the implementation of energy projects, and why service for such equipment is no less important than its production. Vaclav Klein.
He also outlined the prospects for the Ukrainian energy sector – from the development of municipal and industrial cogeneration to system balancing, biogas and biomethane – and explained what European standards and technological approaches should be established today so that the restored energy system of Ukraine meets the requirements of the future.
– Mr. Vaclav, please tell us about the company GENTEC CHP. What does the company do and what position does it occupy on the European market of cogeneration and trigeneration plants?
– GENTEC CHP is a Czech engineering and manufacturing company. We build gas cogeneration and trigeneration plants – from one container to plants with a capacity of tens of megawatts. We design, manufacture, commission and continue to live with them for the next twenty years.
We work on proven propulsion platforms – Caterpillar, MTU and MAN. Everything around our engine: engineering, modules, control system, integration into the customer’s process.
I will say it directly about our state: we are growing – and growing fast. The third production site, projects in Europe, Asia and entry into the US market: step by step we are becoming one of the largest players in the industry in the world. And we do this without losing what brought us here – speed and flexibility.
– Gentec has been working in Ukraine since 2022. How would you assess this experience? What needs of the Ukrainian market have become most obvious to you during this period?
– In 2022, requests did not begin with a technical task. They began with the phrase: “We have no electricity, and winter is ahead.”
This is the most difficult and meaningful work in the history of the company. Three needs emerged very quickly.
Speed is more important than the last percent of optimization. An installation delivered in 3 months costs more than a perfect installation in eighteen months.
An installation is still a solution. A solution is a working installation. Ukrainian customers have learned to ask the second question faster than any market I know: who maintains it, and where are the spare parts.
Heat in Ukraine is not a bonus, but half the task. Where the heating network and the electricity network attack in one week, a machine that provides both is a different asset class.
– According to the company, since the beginning of the war, GENTEC has supplied Ukraine with over 90 cogeneration units with a total capacity of over 100 MW. What types of projects are the most popular in Ukraine today? Are they critical infrastructure, industry, municipal energy, hospitals, social facilities or private business?
– All these segments are real, but they move at different speeds.
Our largest share is industry: food and agro-processing, chemistry, metallurgy. Continuous process, real need for heat and the ability to make an investment decision independently.
In second place and growing is municipal heat. Heat supply companies already have a network, gas connection and load.
Critical infrastructure – hospitals, water utilities, social facilities – has the highest need and the most difficult path to financing. Such projects are usually financed by donors, international financial organizations or municipal budgets, and not by the end user.
Demand is high. The queue builds bankability.
– What solutions does GENTEC offer to Ukrainian customers today? Please tell us about the range of capacities, installation formats and the possibility of operating on natural gas, biogas, biomethane, hydrogen or other fuels.
– Capacity: from 50 kW to 4.5 MW of electrical power per module. Above we combine modules: a 20 MW station is 8-10 machines working as one. Such a scheme is more reliable than one large unit: you never lose everything at once.
Formats: we supply units in three versions – on a frame, in a soundproof casing or in a container. The frame and casing are designed for installation in an existing machine room, which is typical for boiler houses and industrial reconstruction. The container comes ready for connection and remains the fastest way to electricity. And we do the project completely, on a turnkey basis – from the site to commissioning.
Fuel: natural gas as the main one, then biogas from landfills, treatment plants and agricultural fermenters, biomethane, associated petroleum gas and other low-calorie gases. For hydrogen – our propulsion partners already support work on mixtures today, there are clear roadmaps for increasing the share.
We add absorption cooling for trigeneration and an ORC module where there is heat on the site that has nowhere to go. We can also produce steam from exhaust gases, which can be used in the customer’s production cycle.
– Why is cogeneration becoming especially important for Ukraine in the context of attacks on energy infrastructure and the growing need for distributed generation?
– Because distributed generation cannot be destroyed in the same way as centralized generation. A large station or substation is a target with a known address; two hundred installations at two hundred sites are not. Each one stands next to its consumer and does not depend on the line that was hit last night, and in the event of a power outage, it goes into island mode.
Second: cogeneration uses the infrastructure that Ukraine already has – the gas network. It is much easier to restore a gas pipeline than a high-voltage corridor.
Third – time. Winter is the period when both electricity and heat are needed the most, and that is when the networks are hit. Cogeneration covers both sides of this problem with one machine.
– What advantages do cogeneration plants offer compared to conventional backup generation? What is their value in terms of efficiency, reliability, heat supply, electricity generation, autonomy and fuel economy?
– The difference is one plant that is waiting and the other that is working.
Efficiency: about 42-45% electrical efficiency and over 90% total fuel use after heat recovery. The diesel backup unit converts about a third of the fuel into electricity, and the rest is thrown out as hot air.
Economy: The backup generator is pure insurance, capital that does not produce anything until the day it is needed. The cogeneration plant produces electricity and heat every day and has a payback period.
Logistics: The diesel arrives by tanker truck over damaged roads, it must be stored and protected. The gas comes through pipes.
Reliability: These machines are designed for more than 8,000 hours a year, not for a monthly test run. On the day the network goes down, the plant is already working.
In fairness: Diesel is cheaper, faster to install and does not require a gas connection. For short-term emergency backup, it is still appropriate.
– How important are service, technical support and local partners for the successful operation of cogeneration plants in Ukraine? How does GENTEC organize the service and support of its projects on the Ukrainian market?
– I will say it bluntly: a plant that is not serviced turns into scrap metal after two years. Service is the after-sales service department, it is the product.
We build it in three layers. Local presence – Ukrainian partner organizations and technicians, whom we train ourselves: a specialist from Ukraine arrives at the site in hours, from Prague – in days. Spare parts within the country – cross-border logistics in war conditions is the main risk for the readiness of equipment, so critical parts that wear out quickly should be on the shelf in Ukraine, and not in a European warehouse. Therefore, this year we are opening our own warehouse in Ukraine withhazardous parts. Remote monitoring and engineering support from the Czech Republic – most faults are diagnosed before the customer calls, and the technician already knows which part to take.
– What are the main challenges in implementing cogeneration projects in Ukraine today? Are they related to financing, delivery times, grid connection, permitting procedures, access to gas, technical design or other factors?
– By degree of complexity:
Financing – by a large margin. Complex structure: war risks, insurance, currency, guarantees. Every month spent on the financial structure is a month that the customer spends without electricity.
Access to gas and its volume. Confirming the volume and pressure at a specific site and upgrading the connection regularly takes more time than manufacturing the installation.
Delivery times. Global demand for gas engines is exceptionally high, particularly through data centers. We buy up production slots in advance and distribute them as projects mature – this is a conscious commercial risk, because otherwise it is impossible to give the customer a realistic date.
Connection to the grid and permits – the situation is improving, but the work is still individual.
And the quality of design: a poorly specified plant becomes an operational problem for decades.
– What European technological solutions and standards in the field of cogeneration could be particularly useful for the restoration and modernization of the energy sector of Ukraine?
– The most valuable thing that Europe can transfer is not equipment, but a list of rules.
Ukraine is synchronized with the European power system, and therefore the European framework for grid connection, Network Code RfG, is the most useful standard to implement right now: a plant built according to it will not require rework later.
In addition, in everyday practice it is really important:
ISO 8528 – characteristics and response to an increase or a jump in load: reliability becomes a measurable class, not an adjective.
CE, PED and ATEX – safety of equipment and gas handling, especially at biogas sites.
European emission standards – it is cheaper to build for them now than to retrofit treatment in five years.
European definition of high-efficiency cogeneration, which gives the country a strict way to decide which projects deserve support.
Digital monitoring and predictive maintenance as the norm, not an option.
All this is cheaper to implement while the system is being restored, and more expensive when it is already restored.
– How does GENTEC see the further development of its work in Ukraine? Which market segments have the greatest potential in the coming years – industry, municipal energy, critical infrastructure, data centers, biogas projects or distributed generation?
– We intend to be here in ten years, when this will no longer be emergency work, but a regular energy business. Hence the priorities: deeper local service, more spare parts within the country, more Ukrainian engineers who are trained on our equipment.
The nearest perspective is industry and municipal heat. There is a load, a need for heat and the speed of decisions. This will remain the basis of our volumes, along with critical infrastructure – as quickly as funding allows.
Medium perspective – flexibility and balancing. As the market develops and the share of renewables increases, someone has to fill the gaps. Gas engines start up quickly and keep up with the load; in the Czech Republic we are already doing this.
Medium perspective – biogas and biomethane. A huge agricultural base means a large raw material base.
Long term perspective – data centers. Today we are building for this market in Western Europe and the USA. Ukraine will come to it.
If I had to name one segment, I would name biogas. The rest on this list make Ukraine more sustainable. Biogas makes it more independent.
For GENTEC CHP, the Ukrainian market has long gone beyond individual equipment supplies. It is about a long-term partnership and participation in the formation of a new energy reality of Ukraine – decentralized, flexible and capable of working even in the most difficult conditions.
And it seems that the next stage of this path will be associated not only with the number of installed megawatts. Industrial and municipal cogeneration, local service, development of biogas and biomethane, balancing of the energy system and implementation of European standards – all this is gradually forming the foundation of the energy sector, which should not just survive, but become stronger.
As Vaclav Klein emphasizes, biogas canto make Ukraine not only more sustainable, but also more independent. And it is the ability to produce energy where it is needed, to use local resources and not to depend on one large generation point that can become one of the key principles of the Ukrainian energy sector of the future.
