18.05.2026
At the Energy Club forum “Public Procurement of Electricity: Legal Certainty, Retrospective Risks, and Energy Security”, held in Kyiv on May 11, one of the most emotional and at the same time practical discussions centered around the situation in the electricity supply market for public institutions.
The forum was organized by the Energy Club business community.
Krystyna Ian, Director of Energy Sales at ENERGO RESOURСE RI GROUP LLC, spoke about the risks for suppliers, judicial practice, the impossibility of long-term planning, and the threat of companies actually exiting the public sector segment.
According to her, the main problem for the market today is not the market conditions themselves, but the constant changing of rules after contracts have already been concluded.
“Of course, the biggest risk is the changing of rules, because currently working with public institutions is a risk in itself, the very fact of concluding such a contract. And while other companies are already moving away from working with these institutions, we are still trying to work and prove our case,” she noted.
Krystyna Ian emphasized that attempts at “short-term budget replenishment” through mass claims and lawsuits could have devastating consequences for the entire electricity supply market.
The company ENERGO RESOURСE RI GROUP LLC is currently actively defending its position in courts, but the practice is not developing in favor of suppliers. The approach to calculating the so-called “losses” causes particular concern.
“We received a calculation of losses for 5 million UAH, where the prosecutor’s office writes: ‘You buy electricity on the Day-Ahead Market at a price of 5.40 UAH/kWh and sell it at 8.32 UAH/kWh.’ We ask: what is included in the price for the end consumer? They don’t know. They compare 5.40 and 8.32 UAH without understanding that there is VAT, transmission, and other components. But the courts grant these claims,” highlighted Krystyna Ian.
That is why the company decided to change its approach to protecting its interests and is preparing a lawsuit regarding Cabinet of Ministers Resolution No. 1178 – not requesting its complete cancellation, but to obtain a clear legal interpretation regarding the mechanisms for price changes.
Separately, the forum participants discussed the issue of long-term contracts in the electricity market. According to Krystyna Ian, this model practically does not work today.
“Theoretically, it is possible to conclude a long-term contract, but in practice, it’s a no. We simply have nowhere to buy it,” she explained.
At the same time, according to the Director of Energy Sales at ENERGO RESOURСE RI GROUP LLC, the situation is approaching a critical limit. If suppliers begin to pay funds based on court decisions en masse, it could trigger a wave of defaults and the actual exit of businesses from working with public institutions.
“I think this limit will come with the first funds paid into the budget. When a few large companies default, then cooperation with the budget will end. And I think this is very close,” stated Krystyna Ian.
She drew separate attention to the practical difficulties of working with public consumers – a large number of metering points, the complexity of administration, and the inability to quickly terminate supply in problematic cases. According to her, such expenses and risks can be justified only under conditions of significantly higher profit margins.
Summarizing her speech, Krystyna Ian called on market participants to stop waiting for decisions “from above” and move to joint actions.
“We all talk, we get outraged, but we wait for someone to come and do something. Someone to sue, someone to pass a new law. But we need to unite and take an active stance. We have to do this once so that we don’t look for a new panacea every month,” she emphasized.
The Energy Club forum became a platform for discussing one of the most acute problems of the energy sector – the balance between state control, legal certainty, and preserving market viability. And Krystyna Ian’s speech demonstrated that for many suppliers, the question today is no longer just about profitability, but about survival itself in the market.
