Volodymyr Hromko: We need to unite around the economy and protect our people
25 Mar 2025
25 Mar 2025
Today, Ukraine needs to unite around the economy and energy sector and protect its people, who are the greatest resource and highest value of any state, believes Volodymyr Hromko — Deputy Director of the Ligret group of companies, PhD in Law, member of the National Bar Association of Ukraine, Chairman of the Expert Council of the “Ivano-Frankivsk Research Institute for Energy Efficiency Issues,” Director of LLC “Ivano-Frankivsk Teploenergo.”
For the second year, the Ligret group of companies has been a member of the Energy Club and has the opportunity to discuss problems on the club’s platform and communicate with government authorities to solve them.
“Energy Club is a unique and promising community for exchanging ideas and experiences, for communication,” says Volodymyr Hromko. “The club has a large audience: business companies, utility companies, territorial communities, government representatives — the Ministry of Regional Development, the Ministry of Energy, members of parliament. So, during online and offline events, there is an opportunity to convey problematic issues and be heard. We expect that the authorities will respond to business messages.”
“Are there examples of effective results from the dialogue between government and business?”
“At one of our first events as part of the Energy Club, which took place at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in March 2023, I talked about the business request to create an energy map of Ukraine with information about which territories are suitable for wind generation, solar generation, etc.
This is necessary so that businesses can quickly determine construction sites and engage in dialogue with local self-government bodies. After this, there were corresponding appeals to the authorities, including from the Energy Club, and by a resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers, the creation of such a map was approved. Unfortunately, due to martial law, it is not in open access. But upon request, one can obtain information about regions where it is advisable to place different types of generation.
So definitely, Energy Club is a very effective association with extremely important initiatives. I would like as many people as possible to join the club’s events, and for government representatives to participate in discussing problematic issues. Because it can be quite difficult to reach officials. In my personal opinion, government representatives receive very measured and filtered information, which is also presented in a distorted way. Therefore, often when you start talking to them about urgent problems, they look surprised, possibly hearing about it for the first time. So it would be appropriate to involve more deputies, members of relevant commissions, committees, ministry employees so that they receive information from primary sources.”
“Besides participating in all Energy Club events, you are a lecturer for the course ‘Distributed Generation: A Step Towards Ukraine’s Energy Independence,’ giving lectures on types of distributed generation, problematic issues of energy efficiency, and prospects for renewable energy development.”
“Yes, and I am very grateful to Energy Club for this offer, because the course really has a very good target audience, and I can tell not only about my experience in energy and my own vision of its development but also hear reasonable thoughts from platform participants. These are specialists in the fields of energy, business, local government, and with their questions, they supplement information, prompt new thoughts, broaden horizons and the vision of problems that Ukraine faces, especially now, during the full-scale war.”
“What questions do they ask you, what are the participants interested in?”
“It’s actually very pleasant when questions are asked, it shows that energy market participants understand the importance of the raised topic and realize: today’s actions determine our future. But often these questions go beyond my competence, and I would like to hear answers to them myself. 60-70% of them should be regulated by the state in the form of Laws of Ukraine and Cabinet of Ministers Resolutions.
Our life is changing rapidly, especially during the war, which dictates certain conditions. If we talk about distributed generation, about renewable energy — today we do not have time for the ramp-up period that our European partners have. Their energy infrastructure is not being bombed; they have the opportunity to think, plan, and raise funds. We don’t have such opportunities. We have almost completely destroyed thermal generation; there is virtually no maneuverable generation left; there are problems with gas and electricity. Therefore, we need to move faster and develop more dynamically. And business faces the fact that it can provide one service or another, but there are certain legislative restrictions that restrain its activities. This includes tax legislation and a number of other regulations that do not quite favorably affect the business process. And the state must respond to this. Personally, we appeal to both the Ministry of Regional Development and the Ministry of Energy, trying to get an appointment, although it is not easy. I understand that our authorities are busy, but for the heads of critical infrastructure enterprises, time for personal communication is needed at least once a month. From personal experience, I can say that government representatives have an interest in solving problematic issues, but not everything succeeds. Our legislative body is one — the Verkhovna Rada, 450 members of parliament who need to be convinced.
All processes need to be simplified. We heavily regulate any mechanisms — construction of generation, preparation of technical documentation, obtaining feasibility studies. During martial law, everything should be simplified many times over so that there is an opportunity to move forward dynamically.”
“Is the course you teach in the training your own, based on your scientific and practical experience?”
“Of course. But the basis of the course is the regulatory framework — Laws of Ukraine, Cabinet of Ministers Resolutions, etc. Participating in discussions on the Energy Club platform, I noticed that there are problems with terminology. That is, when we talked about distributed generation, everyone understood it differently — solar stations, cogeneration or gas piston units, wind stations, etc. But in the Law of Ukraine ‘On the Electricity Market,’ there is a definition that distributed generation is a power station with an installed capacity of 20 MW or less connected to the electricity distribution system. More specifically, distributed generation is the decentralized production of electricity, which is carried out by small energy installations directly at the places of its consumption. There is an order of the Cabinet of Ministers dated July 18, 2024, No. 713-r ‘On approval of the Strategy for the development of distributed generation for the period until 2035 and approval of the operational plan of measures for its implementation in 2024-2026.’
As a PhD in Law and a practicing lawyer with extensive experience in jurisprudence, I draw colleagues’ attention to this: we speak from a practical point of view, but we need to build on the regulatory framework and legally defined terms. Then everyone will clearly understand what is being discussed.
We must unite around the economy and energy as the main engine of any state because electricity consumption is one of the markers that indicate the pace of economic development of the country. That is, if our electricity consumption increases, we can say that the economy is starting to work. Conversely, if there is a decline in electricity consumption, it indicates an economic decline.
We constantly unite around embroidered shirts, language, faith, prominent figures. It is very right that we value authenticity and national symbols. But the above-mentioned processes require investment of funds and do not provide the opportunity to earn them. If we have a healthy economy working, we can deal with issues of language, faith, army. We must stop spreading ourselves thin and concentrate on the priority — the economy. Any war is for resources and spheres of influence. We want to win, accordingly, the economy must work. Then everything will be Ukraine.”
“They say crisis is new opportunities. Do we have opportunities in the existing conditions to strengthen or at least protect the economy from further decline?”
“I am an optimist and deeply convinced that we have the potential not just to restore our economy but also to bring it to leading positions in Europe. But for this, we have no right to lose our people. People, specialists, professionals — this is a vitally necessary resource for the country. We can rebuild everything provided that we have people — our greatest value. As a manager, I understand that my employees are my everything, they are the bees that daily replenish the treasury of the enterprise. Every employee is important, regardless of position. Therefore, we have no right to lose people, and for this, we need to end the active phase of hostilities, resolve issues with mobilization and reservation, and pay decent wages. It is difficult to talk about development prospects when we do not have the main thing — human resources.
We need to unite, including on the Energy Club platform, and convey important information to the authorities so that they can hear us better, understand us, and meet us halfway. Because the main taxpayer is business.”