Yurii Pidlisnyi: “Energy Club’s greatest value lies in having a clear working route from an identified problem to a conversation with those who can solve it”

In the energy sector, the most important decisions are born not only in offices but also in professional discussions, where practical experience turns into proposals capable of changing the rules of the game. This is precisely the approach followed by Energy Club, which in 2026 marks its 10th anniversary, bringing together more than 100 Ukrainian and international energy companies.

For ENERGY 365 LLC, membership in Energy Club has, from the very beginning, been not a matter of status but a tool for jointly searching for market solutions. Yurii Pidlisnyi, the company’s head, spoke about how professional dialogue helps bring pressing issues to the regulator’s level, why substantive discussions are the most valuable, and what role the Club plays today in the development of Ukraine’s energy sector.

– Mr. Pidlisnyi, when did your company join Energy Club, and why did you decide to become part of the Club at the time?

– ENERGY 365 LLC has been a member of Energy Club since 2020. At that time, the new electricity market model was still being fine-tuned, and suppliers faced daily changes in procedures, settlements and responsibility for imbalances. As a supplier and balancing group operator, we needed a direct channel to discuss the practical consequences of these changes with other market participants, NEURC and Ukrenergo. That is how we saw membership from the very start: not as a status, but as an opportunity to raise, in a timely way, issues affecting both our work and our customers.

– What is the value of Energy Club for your company from a practical point of view?

– For us, Energy Club’s greatest value lies in having a clear working route from an identified problem to a conversation with those who can solve it. We come not just with an assessment, but with figures and examples from our day-to-day work. For instance, on our initiative the Club has discussed changes to price caps, discrepancies in MMS data accuracy, asymmetry in imbalance prices, the risk of non-payment by district heating companies (TKE), and the preparation of budget-funded institutions for hourly metering starting in 2027. Energy Club helped identify the right circle of participants, organize expert discussion and, where necessary, formalize follow-up appeals. For ENERGY 365, this produces a concrete result: our analysis is reviewed by a wider circle of specialists, and the issue gets a chance to be considered at the level of the regulator, the system operator or government authorities.

– Which Energy Club formats are most useful for you, and why?

– The greatest practical benefit for us comes from thematic meetings built around one clearly formulated issue. A closed-door format is appropriate for topics that require frank discussion of settlements, imbalances or debt risks, while an open online format works better when consumers, budget-funded institutions or government representatives need to be involved in preparing a solution.

For us, the quality of an event is determined not by its scale but by the composition of participants, the availability of source data and a clear follow-up after the meeting. Forums and interviews are also useful, but primarily as an opportunity to see the broader context and explain the company’s position beyond a single working discussion.

– In your view, how has Energy Club’s role for Ukraine’s energy market changed over 10 years?

– Since we have been in the Club for six years, it would be more accurate to speak about the changes we have seen since then. Over this time, Energy Club’s work has become noticeably more efficient and more focused. Today the Club can take in a company’s appeal, check whether the problem is systemic, gather exactly the participants who have the necessary data or authority, and then bring the work through to official appeals. During the war, this kind of speed is especially important: a flaw in metering, pricing or settlement rules can, in a short time, create a liquidity risk for suppliers and threaten the continuity of supply to consumers. In our view, Energy Club’s current role lies precisely in its ability to recognize such consequences in time and organize work around them.

– Which Energy Club event, discussion or initiative has particularly stayed with your team?

– One of the most illustrative for us was the 2026 discussion on the readiness of budget-funded institutions for hourly electricity metering from 1 January 2027. ENERGY 365 initiated it in order to demonstrate in advance not only the technical requirement but also the possible costs, procurement risks and the threat of individual institutions being forced to switch to a supplier of last resort.

Representatives of NEURC, the State Treasury Service, the Ministry of Education and Science, suppliers and experts took part in the meeting. Following the discussion, Energy Club sent an official appeal to the Cabinet of Ministers, NEURC and other authorities with specific preparatory steps and an indicative timeline through the end of 2026. This case clearly showed how an operational issue raised in good time can become the basis for the systemic preparation of thousands of budget-funded metering points.

– What would you wish Energy Club for the next 10 years?

– For the next decade, we wish Energy Club to further strengthen its work with data and outcome tracking: preparing brief quantitative assessments ahead of key discussions, and afterward recording the agreements reached, those responsible, deadlines and implementation status.

We would like to see more regular working contacts with NEURC, Ukrenergo, relevant ministries and European institutions, as well as the ability to track the further fate of proposals that the Club submits on behalf of market participants. And, of course, we wish the team stamina and energy: there are many topics ahead where it is important not to stop at discussion but to see an issue through to a clear decision.

– In one sentence: for your company, Energy Club is…

– For ENERGY 365 LLC, Energy Club is an environment in which our practical experience turns into well-reasoned proposals for improving the operation of the energy market.

As Yurii Pidlisnyi rightly noted, the true value of a professional community lies not in the number of events held or memoranda signed, but in ensuring that every problem raised has a follow-up, every proposal gets a chance to be heard, and every discussion ends in a concrete decision. It is precisely this approach that makes Energy Club not just a meeting place for market participants, but an effective tool for its development.