03.06.2026
On May 26, in Kyiv, within the framework of the International Specialized Exhibition Green EnerTech – 2026, the Energy Forum “Energy Decentralization 2026: Generation, Storage and Financing” took place at the International Exhibition Center, organized by the Energy Club business community together with Kyiv Global Expo. Market participants, representatives of authorities, the financial sector, and the expert community discussed current challenges in the development of distributed generation, energy storage, and financing of new energy projects under wartime conditions.
Oleksandr Kisilov, Head of the Distributed Generation Division at JSC “Energy Company of Ukraine” (ECU), presented a practical perspective on the operation of generating facilities after commissioning and explained why power plant owners frequently underreceive up to 20% of their projected revenue.
In recent years, the number of distributed generation facilities in Ukraine has been growing rapidly. At the same time, a significant part of such assets belongs to enterprises for which electricity production is not a core business activity. The main purpose of investing in generation for them is to ensure a reliable electricity supply for their own production processes during the war and the risk of emergency blackouts.
Oleksandr Kisilov noted that today, the Energy Company of Ukraine, in addition to its functions as a supplier, trader, and aggregator, is actively developing its role as an operator of distributed generation, which includes dispatching generating facilities and supporting their commercial activities in the electricity market.
The company participates in creating financial models, evaluating investment projects, and analyzing the results of their operation. This experience helped identify a characteristic problem that repeats across many projects.
“Analyzing a certain number of diverse projects — cogeneration units, SPPs, SPPs with BESS — we observe a trend where all business plans undercalculate revenue by an average of about 20%,” stated the Head of the Distributed Generation Division at JSC “Energy Company of Ukraine”.
According to him, during the construction phase, facilities are usually implemented in accordance with design solutions and function technically properly. However, after launch, actual financial results often turn out to be 15–20% lower than those embedded in financial models.
Oleksandr Kisilov is convinced that the main reason lies in insufficient attention paid to the subsequent market operation of assets.
“According to our estimates, 30% in a business plan represents the installation of successful project implementation, and 70% is market operation, which is exactly where the project’s economics are determined,” he emphasized.
The speaker highlighted four key components that directly affect the financial efficiency of generating facilities.
First of all, this concerns a full presence in all segments of the electricity market for which a particular asset was designed. If a facility has a capacity of more than 1 MW, its effective operation implies participation not only in the day-ahead market and the intraday market but also in the balancing market.
At the same time, such operation requires professional dispatching. A dispatcher must not only ensure the execution of commands but also form a commercial strategy for the asset’s operation, analyze production costs, and model the most profitable scenarios for entering various market segments.
According to ECU estimates, due to a lack of expertise in active trading in the day-ahead and intraday markets, generation owners can lose from 3 to 7% of potential revenue.
Even greater risks are associated with the balancing market. On the one hand, it opens up additional opportunities for making a profit, and on the other, it involves complex participation mechanisms, risks of payment delays, and penalties for failing to execute dispatch commands.
According to Oleksandr Kisilov, losses in this segment can range from 10 to 20% of revenue.
An additional impact comes from participation in the ancillary services market and utilizing the possibilities of electricity import and export. Ineffective work in these directions can cost a project another 2–5% of potential profit.
Separately, the speaker drew attention to the risks of violating REMIT requirements. He reminded that corresponding fines can reach up to 10% of a company’s annual revenue, creating multi-million financial risks for market participants.
Oleksandr Kisilov named working as part of aggregated groups as one of the most effective mechanisms for increasing the economic efficiency of distributed generation.
Such an approach allows drawing on expertise as early as the project development stage, forming more realistic financial models, making optimal technical decisions, and providing professional support during subsequent market operations.
Separately, the speaker spoke about ECU’s new service for preparing project feasibility studies, which helps investors evaluate the future profitability of a facility and adapt its configuration to real market conditions.
At the same time, the company is already facing an acute shortage of qualified dispatchers. For this reason, ECU established its own dispatch school, aimed at training specialists capable of forming commercial strategies for generating facilities and ensuring their effective operation in the energy market.
In conclusion, Oleksandr Kisilov emphasized that under modern conditions, the success of distributed generation projects is determined not so much by equipment quality or construction speed as by the professionalism of their subsequent market operation. Therefore, aggregation, dispatching, and qualified asset management become key tools for maintaining project profitability and protecting investments in the energy sector.
