24.09.2026
The future of investment in energy storage lies in creating integrated facilities capable of operating simultaneously in several market segments and generating multiple revenue streams. Illia Chaban, Director of the Energy Division at the EDS Engineering and Investment Group, presented the company’s comparison of financial models, the prospects for combining solar generation with energy storage and the development of energy mobility hubs during the Energy Club forum “Energy Freedom: Resilience and New Opportunities in Ukraine’s Energy Storage Market,” held in Kyiv on 17 September.
At the beginning of his presentation, Illia Chaban noted that EDS has operated in the energy market for more than 15 years and has experience in designing, connecting and implementing energy facilities of varying complexity. The group’s companies employ more than 750 specialists.
EDS operates in the energy and construction sectors, manufactures its own equipment and develops electric mobility infrastructure. The group has launched the production of power transformers with voltage classes of up to 110 kV, manufactures high-speed charging stations and implements charging infrastructure projects.
According to Illia Chaban, Ukraine’s energy storage market is developing in parallel with the increasing number of solar power plants. Despite discussions about the declining economics of new solar projects, investors continue to build them. “Solar power plants are considered to have longer payback periods than before, but they are still being built. New solar generation continues to be commissioned, while imbalances within the power system are increasing. This is precisely what creates new opportunities for the energy storage market,” Illia Chaban said.
According to the estimate he presented, more than 2 GW of new solar generation could be commissioned in Ukraine during the year. The increasing share of solar strengthens the need for technologies that make it possible to shift generated electricity over time and use it when it is most valuable to the power system or commands a higher market price. “Previously, investors focused on constructing solar power plants and adding megawatts. Today, the key issue is managing that capacity over time. The future lies in investing in more complex systems that can earn revenue in different markets,” the speaker emphasised.
EDS analysed several models of energy facilities: a standalone solar power plant, an independent energy storage system, storage operating in the ancillary services market and various combinations of solar generation and energy storage. These calculations are incorporated into a financial model that the company updates every month using actual day-ahead market prices.
Illia Chaban acknowledged that he had also expected the market gradually to become saturated and the profitability of BESS projects to decline. However, updating the calculations using current day-ahead market prices has so far shown a different trend. “I was also sceptical and kept expecting this growth to come to an end. But as we continue updating the model using actual day-ahead prices, the profitability of energy storage projects keeps increasing. That means they need to be built,” he said.
According to EDS calculations, the payback period for a conventional solar power plant under current conditions is approximately ten years in the hryvnia-based model and almost 15 years in US dollar terms.
If a solar power plant is supplemented with an energy storage system that does not have separate technical conditions for arbitrage and is used primarily for peak shaving, the payback period for the complete system is also approximately ten years.
According to Illia Chaban, significantly better results are achieved by a model in which an appropriately sized storage system is connected to a solar power plant and completes one full charging and discharging cycle per day. “In this model, the indicators improve considerably. According to our calculations, the payback period is approximately 4.6 years in hryvnia terms and almost five years in US dollars,” the Director of the EDS Energy Division reported.
At the same time, moving to two battery cycles per day does not double the financial result. According to the company’s model, the second cycle improves performance by approximately 10%. “Two cycles do not guarantee that the result will be twice as good. According to our calculations, the indicators improve by around 10%,” Illia Chaban explained.
At the current stage, EDS considers the combination of a solar power plant and an energy storage system to be the most promising model. Such a configuration allows the project to use its own generation to charge the battery, shift output to more profitable hours and adapt to a future reduction in market price spreads. “The best financial model today is solar generation combined with energy storage. In our view, it provides a more stable basis for the project. When the opportunity to earn revenue solely from balancing declines, projects will need to add their own generation to remain viable,” the speaker said.
EDS sees the creation of mobility hubs near major highways as the next stage in the development of such flexible energy facilities. These hubs can combine solar generation, energy storage, high-speed electric vehicle charging modules, a retail zone and participation in the day-ahead market. “Operating in different markets creates multiple cash flows that protect the business against a downturn in any one area,” Illia Chaban explained.
According to him, the development of electric mobility could provide an additional source of income during periods when revenues from arbitrage or generation decline. At the time of the forum, one such facility was already under construction. “If electric mobility continues to gain popularity, this area could support the project if revenue from arbitrage or generation decreases,” he noted.
Illia Chaban also presented several investment projects developed by the group and ready for construction. These included a project in the Zakarpattia region combining a 40 MW solar power plant with a 40 MW energy storage system featuring a power-to-energy ratio of 1:4. According to the speaker, the project has technical connection conditions, a feasibility study and approval from NPC Ukrenergo. The company’s portfolio also includes standalone energy storage projects with capacities of 5–10 MW for arbitrage, as well as sites that allow for further expansion.
Illia Chaban identified the carefully planned increase in the complexity of energy facilities, rather than their simplification, as the main prerequisite for long-term investment resilience. Combining generation, storage, consumption, charging infrastructure and participation in different market segments reduces dependence on a single source of revenue. “The central message is that energy facilities need to become more complex. It is precisely this complexity and the combination of different ways of working with electricity that provide the key to a project’s stable and sustainable long-term operation,” Illia Chaban concluded.
