14.05.2026
During the Energy Club professional discussion “Public Procurement of Electricity: Legal Certainty, Retrospective Risks, and Energy Security,” held in Kyiv on May 11, representatives of the state, business, and the legal community discussed how to change approaches to public procurement to avoid mass legal disputes, ensure stable electricity supply for the public sector, and restore predictability to market rules.
The forum was organized by the Energy Club business community.
Mykhailo Mohnia, Deputy Director of the Public Procurement Department at the Ministry of Economy, spoke about the work on a new draft law for adapting European directives and the reasons for the current crisis.
According to Mykhailo Mohnia, the Ministry of Economy has recently received a significant number of inquiries regarding the situation around price changes in electricity supply contracts.
“Judicial practice has changed significantly and ambiguously. Prosecutors appealed, and the court took its position, and now we must react,” he noted.
The official explained that the attempt to regulate the situation through Cabinet of Ministers Resolution No. 1178 on the specifics of public procurement under martial law did not yield the expected result.
“In February 2026, the courts stated that Resolution No. 1178 does not establish a separate procedure from the one already in the law. Thus, it became clear that the problem originated specifically from the law that regulates this,” said the Ministry of Economy representative.
He emphasized that while working on the adaptation of European directives, the ministry analyzed pricing mechanisms in EU countries in detail.
“European directives separate the 10% for a one-time change if it was not provided for in the contract. And they separately provide for changes according to market fluctuations, consumer prices, Day-Ahead Market (DAM) prices, and so on. Our courts adopted European practice, regardless of the actual regulatory framework we had in the law,” explained Mykhailo Mohnia.
According to the official, the only way out of the situation is changes to current legislation. That is why the relevant norms are already included in draft law No. 11520.
“In the new draft law, we have provided for changes in the approach to the procurement contract. We also provide for changes to the transitional and final provisions of Article 41 of the Law ‘On Public Procurement,’ which should resolve the current situation,” he reported.
During the discussion, market participants emphasized that electricity is a specific exchange-traded commodity with constant price fluctuations, so the market needs unified standard contracts and a formula mechanism for price calculation. In response, Mykhailo Mohnia noted that the draft law provides for the possibility for the Cabinet of Ministers to approve standard forms of public procurement contracts.
“Now it will not be a procurement contract, but a public procurement contract. This is one way to create standard contracts that everyone can use,” he said.
At the same time, the Ministry of Economy representative emphasized that the ministry does not have the authority to provide clarifications that are mandatory for the courts.
“We cannot in any way influence the court’s position. The court is independent in its activities,” he stressed.
During the discussion, energy project development expert Iryna Dmytrotsa raised the issue of the consequences of imperfect regulation for critical infrastructure and inquired whether statistics are kept on consumers who, due to procurement problems, were forced to switch to the Supplier of Last Resort (SoLR). In response, Mykhailo Mohnia admitted that the problem is systemic.
“We have a general problem with price regulation in state contracts. We are currently going through a transit period from a communist to a market economy,” he noted.
According to him, the current restrictions on price changes were created as an attempt to administratively control market processes, but over time, this led to an accumulation of problems. At the same time, the Ministry of Economy representative reported that there are currently no separate statistics regarding losses to critical infrastructure.
“There are many such cases. But the department consists of 35 people, and we physically cannot evaluate the entire market. Unfortunately, statistics on losses are not kept,” he said.
The discussion showed that the problem of public electricity procurement has long gone beyond individual legal disputes. Today, it is about the need to create clear and stable rules for the market that simultaneously take into account the specifics of the exchange commodity, protect state interests, and do not jeopardize the stable energy supply of critical infrastructure.
