14.09.2026
Can BESS really reduce costs, improve the efficiency of on-site generation, and protect production from power outages? Increasingly, banks’ willingness to finance such projects depends on the answers to these questions.
On September 17, in Kyiv, at the Energy Club forum “Enerhiia Svobody: Resilience and New Opportunities for the Energy Storage Systems Market in Ukraine”, representatives of business, banks, the government, and the energy market will discuss not only technologies but also money: how to make BESS projects profitable, attract investment, and turn energy storage into a fully fledged element of Ukraine’s new energy system.
One of the forum’s speakers will be Denys Samchuk, Deputy Head of the MMSE Sales Department at Oschadbank. In his presentation, he will explain under what conditions a BESS project becomes “bankable”, how the bank assesses its payback and risks, and what financial instruments are already available to Ukrainian businesses.
In an interview with Energy Club journalist Olena Karpachova, Denys Samchuk explained why the bank is ready to finance not simply a battery, but a comprehensive energy solution, and why, in wartime, the key argument in favor of BESS is increasingly not only savings on electricity, but also the cost of business downtime.
– Mr. Samchuk, what makes a BESS project bankable today? What key criteria must an investor meet to qualify for bank financing?
– For us, BESS is bankable when we see a clear economic effect for the client’s core business.
We assess the company’s financial condition, its ability to service the loan, its own contribution, the quality of the equipment, the supplier’s reputation, and also the problem that the BESS is intended to solve.
This could be reducing electricity costs, using an on-site solar power plant more efficiently, managing peak loads, providing backup power, or minimizing production downtime.
In other words, we do not finance just a battery. We finance a solution designed to make a business more efficient and energy-resilient.
– What mistakes do investors most often make when preparing an energy storage project to attract bank financing?
– The most common mistake is starting to select equipment without first analyzing the business’s needs.
First, you need to analyze the company’s consumption profile: when and how much it consumes, what its peak loads are, whether it has its own generation, and how much business downtime costs.
Only after that should you determine the required BESS power and capacity.
The second mistake is calculating only the cost of the battery without taking into account installation, inverters, grid connection, servicing, and other expenses.
The third is approaching the bank only after the project has already been fully developed. It is better to involve the bank at the project-structuring stage. This makes it possible to select the optimal lending solution for the client from the outset, taking into account the project parameters, the client’s own contribution, the financing term, and the support programs available at the bank.
Oschadbank has well-developed partnerships with sellers and manufacturers of energy equipment, so in some cases we can offer clients special partner programs that provide a faster decision-making process and more favorable, preferential financing terms.
– Which financing models for energy storage projects are currently the most realistic for Ukraine? Are banks ready to finance such projects on commercial terms?
– Yes, banks are ready to finance such projects.
For our segment, the most straightforward model is an investment loan to an operating business for the purchase and installation of BESS, with the company’s operating cash flow serving as the source of loan repayment.
In this case, BESS is part of a comprehensive energy solution – either on its own or together with a solar power plant, other generation assets, and energy management systems.
Partner programs, government support, and international guarantee instruments can also be used.
So today, this is already a fully viable object of bank financing, provided that the economics of both the business and the project itself are clear.
– How does the bank assess the payback of a BESS project? Which revenue sources and financial indicators are decisive when making a lending decision?
– We look beyond simply the direct revenue generated by the battery.
For a business, the economic effect of BESS can come from reducing electricity costs, making fuller use of its own generation, optimizing consumption peaks, and reducing losses caused by outages and downtime.
Therefore, the bank assesses the company’s entire cash flow before and after the project is implemented. For the bank, the key factors remain sufficient operating cash flow and the company’s ability to service the loan.
And there is one very important point: you need to calculate not only the cost of electricity, but also the cost of one hour of business downtime. For many manufacturing companies, continuity of operations itself may be the main economic argument in favor of BESS.
– How promising is electricity arbitrage using BESS as an investment model? Is the current market structure sufficient to ensure stable project economics?
– We see arbitrage as an additional opportunity, but for financing BESS in the business segment, we would not make it the basis of the lending decision.
For us, a much more predictable model is one in which BESS primarily serves the company’s own needs: storing cheaper self-generated energy, optimizing consumption, and providing backup power. If the client can additionally generate revenue by operating in the energy market, that is a positive factor.
But the core economics should remain sustainable even without overly optimistic forecasts regarding future differences in electricity prices.
Therefore, at present, it is not enough for a bank to build a project’s financial model exclusively around a projected price spread. We rather regard arbitrage as an additional economic benefit.
– Which risks are of greatest concern to financial institutions in energy storage projects? Are these primarily regulatory, market, technological, or security risks?
– We look at the entire range of risks.
The first is financial: will the business be able to service the loan?
The second is technological: battery quality, the seller’s reputation, manufacturer warranties, cycle life, and the availability of equipment servicing.
The third is whether the technical solution has been selected correctly. An excessively large or improperly sized system may simply fail to deliver the expected economic effect.
And, of course, under current conditions, there is the factor of war-related risk: the location of the facility, the possibility of physical damage, insurance, and the business’s ability to resume operations.
– Has the approach of banks to financing energy projects changed because of the war? What additional requirements or risk-mitigation mechanisms may be applied to BESS?
– The war has not stopped financing for such projects. On the contrary, it has significantly increased the value of energy resilience for businesses.
However, the bank assesses more carefully the location of the facility, the possibility of insuring it, technological reliability, the company’s reserves, and its ability to continue operating under different scenarios.
Depending on the project structure, additional risk-protection instruments may include guarantee mechanisms provided by the bank’s international partners.
At the same time, the war itself has created an additional economic argument in favor of BESS.
Previously, businesses primarily calculated electricity savings. Today, they also calculate how much it will cost to stop production for 2, 5, or 10 hours. And this is where the economics of energy storage can change significantly.
– Does Oschadbank see potential in financing not only large BESS projects, but also distributed energy storage systems for businesses, communities, and critical infrastructure facilities?
– Absolutely. We consider this segment highly promising.
This includes manufacturing companies, agribusinesses, logistics complexes, retail chains, water utilities, hospitals, facilities serving territorial communities, and critical infrastructure.
The combination of solar power + BESS can be particularly effective, allowing a company not only to generate its own electricity but also to manage when it is used.
Oschadbank already has partner programs for financing solar power plants and energy storage systems, including comprehensive turnkey solutions, as well as energy projects in territorial communities.
So for us, this is not a future direction – we are already financing it today.
– What role can government programs, international financial institutions, and guarantee mechanisms play in financing new energy infrastructure?
– Their role is very important because they can make such investments more accessible to a larger number of businesses.
Government programs can compensate for part of the interest rate, while international financial institutions can provide guarantees, risk-sharing, grant components, or other longer-term and cheaper financing resources.
We already have specific instruments in place that make financing energy projects more accessible to businesses. These include the state program “Affordable Loans 5-7-9%”, as well as financing under cooperation with the EBRD, which makes it possible to cover up to 50% of the loan amount through a guarantee mechanism.
An additional advantage for the client may be the opportunity to receive a grant, or effectively cashback, of 10% of the cost of energy equipment excluding VAT. This means that a client can combine preferential financing, a reduced collateral burden, and grant support within a single project.
We have the largest network of partner programs for energy-related purposes with equipment manufacturers and distributors.
Therefore, the most effective model is: the client’s own contribution + a bank loan + government or international support mechanisms + reliable equipment partners.
– What needs to change in regulation, financing, and business models for BESS to become a fully fledged part of the energy market?
– First and foremost, the market needs predictability.
There need to be clear and stable rules regarding grid connection, the use of BESS, electricity metering, and the ability to combine self-consumption with other models for using an energy storage system.
The second area is the standardization of technical solutions and financial models. The more high-quality standard projects a bank and a client see, the faster and easier it becomes to finance them and for the client to make the decision to move forward with a project.
And third, accessible financial instruments.
Our task as a bank is to ensure that, for businesses, BESS gradually becomes as familiar an object of lending as production equipment, a vehicle, or a solar power plant.
We see BESS not simply as a battery, but as an investment in energy efficiency, business continuity, and the competitiveness of Ukrainian businesses.
Today, BESS for Ukrainian businesses is no longer a technology for the future, but a tool that makes it possible to operate amid an unstable energy system, reduce costs, and protect production from downtime.
And if the bank’s key question is whether such a project has clear economics, for businesses another question is becoming increasingly important: how much will it cost to refuse to invest in their own energy resilience?
That is why the development of the energy storage market depends not only on the cost of the technology. What is needed are clear rules, accessible financing, insurance and guarantee mechanisms, and successful projects that demonstrate their effectiveness in practice. The more such cases emerge in Ukraine, the faster BESS will evolve from a new market solution into an ordinary business development tool.
