23.12.2025
At the Energy Club forum “THE ENERGY OF WOMEN’S LEADERSHIP: Women Holding Ukraine’s Energy Frontline,” held on December 10 in Kyiv, the discussion focused on leadership under conditions of high expectations, responsibility, and constant uncertainty. Women leaders who have journeyed from engagement to real influence voiced their thoughts on how to sound not just loud, but strategic and weighty in the modern world.
Within the framework of the second panel discussion, “Architects of the Future: Recovery Strategies. Investments, Market Transformation, and Green Transition,” Mariia Prokhorchuk, Deputy Director for the Electricity Market of the Eco-Optima Group of Companies, took the stage. She recounted how renewable energy in Ukraine went from an “ecological innovation” to a component of national security in a matter of years.
“Until 2019, renewable energy was perceived as an expensive and incomprehensible innovation with a ‘scary’ ‘green’ tariff. After February 24, 2022, we clearly realized: if there is no own generation—a solar station on the roof or a facility within the region—one can remain without light not for an hour or two, but much longer,” noted Mariia Prokhorchuk.
She recalled that from the beginning of the full-scale invasion, the Ukrainian energy system worked in isolated mode: disconnected from the energy systems of Russia and Belarus and not yet synchronized with ENTSO-E. Under these conditions, the combination of different types of generation, as well as the balance of consumption and production, became critically important. The situation was particularly difficult in the western regions, where due to a number of factors consumption dropped sharply, while the sun and wind continued to generate electricity. This made accurate forecasting impossible and increased the need for energy storage and flexible generation.
The Eco-Optima Group of Companies, whose portfolio is concentrated mainly in the Lviv region, effectively acted as a local balancer. Over 10 years of operation in the market, the company has built more than 20 facilities with a total capacity of 246 MW, of which 128 MW is solar generation and 93 MW is wind generation. In September 2025, the company commissioned gas reciprocating units, substantially supporting the energy system. Part of the wind capacity — 59 MW — was completed back in 2023, in the midst of the war.
“Energy is about balance: balance in people, in facilities, in kilowatts, and only then – in money,” emphasized Mariia Prokhorchuk. She cited an example of how during peak outages in the Lviv region, four queues (groups) were active simultaneously, but thanks to wind generation, they managed to reduce them to one.
Construction of one of Eco-Optima’s wind power plants began in 2021. After the start of the full-scale war, the company faced a complete halt in equipment supplies, a lack of insurance, and the reluctance of foreign contractors to work in Ukraine. The solution was to complete the project with their own forces: involving Ukrainian partners, purchasing a 600-ton crane (one of two in Ukraine), and completing the construction of the WPP in the mountainous area. “This station is not just additional megawatts for the region. It is a symbol that Ukraine strengthens, develops, and remains responsible and adaptive even during the war,” the speaker noted.
Even before the war, Eco-Optima bet on a full cycle – from designing facilities to connecting to DSO (Distribution System Operator) and TSO (Transmission System Operator) networks, creating its own dispatch service and electricity supplier. This allowed for reducing imbalances and gaining a deeper understanding of the region’s energy system state. Mariia Prokhorchuk paid special attention to the issue of grid development: together with generation, the group of companies invests in the construction of network infrastructure, which directly affects the reliability of electricity supply to consumers. Today, Eco-Optima is actively working on energy storage and decentralized generation projects.
Mariia Prokhorchuk admitted that she had personal insights after the first panel of the forum. She recalled Madeleine Albright’s words about the responsibility of women to support each other and emphasized that in the energy sector, the level of mutual support and responsibility is significantly higher than in many other industries. Having a specialized education, a master’s degree, and 10 years of experience in energy – from a heating plant inspector in Kryvyi Rih to Deputy Director – she addressed the forum participants with a call not to be afraid to speak up and demonstrate expertise. “There is a law of conservation of energy: it does not arise from nowhere and does not disappear into nowhere. So let’s use our female professional energy to strengthen Ukraine’s resilience,” concluded Mariia Prokhorchuk.
The moderator of the second panel, Kateryna Ivanus, founder of the Kateryna Ivanus PR&media consulting agency, noted that today the energy sector needs not declarative, but applied leadership. “It is difficult to philosophize in conditions of uncertainty. What we heard today is leadership of action. Thanks to such companies and people, we have light now and can think about the future,” she emphasized.
