24.08.2026
On September 17, Energy Club will hold the forum “Energy of Freedom: Sustainability and New Opportunities for the Energy Storage Systems Market in Ukraine” in Kyiv. Its participants will talk not only about technologies, but also about how to form a full-fledged storage market in Ukraine – with clear rules, effective business models and attractive conditions for investors.
Today, energy storage systems are gradually changing their purpose. BESS is no longer just a reserve in case of a power outage, but a tool for optimizing consumption, reducing peak loads, using solar generation more efficiently and increasing the economic efficiency of the enterprise.
One of the main speakers of the forum will be the technical director of Livoltek Maksym Rybintsov. In an interview with the Energy Club media department, he talked about how the Ukrainian BESS market is changing, why the storage device should work for the company’s economy every day, what mistakes should be avoided when designing such systems, and what regulatory changes are necessary to scale the industry.
The expert also shared his practical experience in implementing BESS projects in Ukraine and his vision of what role storage systems will play in the country’s new decentralized energy architecture.
– Mr. Maksym, over the past year the market for energy storage systems in Ukraine has changed significantly. What is your main conclusion as a representative of an international company?
– My main conclusion is that the Ukrainian market has stopped perceiving BESS exclusively as a backup power source.
Until recently, the client’s main question was: “What will happen to the company if the grid disappears?” Today, the question is different: “How to optimize the entire energy system of the enterprise using a storage device?”
BESS can simultaneously operate for self-consumption, peak shaving, accumulation of excess solar generation, and backup power.
We see this at real Ukrainian facilities. For example, a meat processing plant in Lviv has installed a BESS with a power of 500 kW and a capacity of 1044 kWh, which works together with a Huawei 400 kW solar power plant and a 160 kW diesel generator.
That is, BESS is gradually moving from the category of “insurance in case of an accident” to the category of a full-fledged energy asset of the enterprise.
– When does BESS stop being just a technology and become a full-fledged business tool for the enterprise?
– When it works not a few hours a year during accidents, but every day.
If the battery just sits charged and waits for a shutdown, it is insurance.
And if it is charged daily from excess solar generation, reduces peak consumption, optimizes energy consumption, and provides a reserve in case of an accident, it is already a business tool.
That is why we are not just talking about a battery, but about a managed energy system of the enterprise.
For example, a BESS 125 kW / 261 kWh is installed at a poultry farm in Sambir, which works with an existing Huawei 100 kW solar power plant in self-consumption and peak shaving modes.
And this, in my opinion, is the right model: BESS should create economic value every day, and not just wait for the next blackout.
– Livoltek implements projects in over 110 countries. What global practices are most needed by the Ukrainian market today?
– I would highlight three things.
First – a comprehensive approach.
BESS cannot be considered separately from the grid, solar power plant, generator, load and control system.
Second – maximum use of one asset.
The battery should solve several tasks at once: self-consumption, peak shaving, backup, optimization of solar generation, and in the future – work in the system services market.
Third – the right architecture.
This is especially important for Ukraine, because we have already installed a huge number of grid-connected solar power plants.
Therefore, it makes no sense to rebuild the entire solar station just because we add a BESS.
The AC-coupled architecture allows you to integrate the storage into an existing PV system without a complete rebuild. This is exactly the scenario that Livoltek solutions provide.
That is, we can add storage to the existing power system, rather than building it from scratch.
– What are the most common mistakes companies make when planning the implementation of energy storage systems?
– The first and most common mistake is starting with a battery.
The client says: “I need a BESS for 500 kWh.”
And I ask: “Why?”
What is your load? What are the peaks? What is the connected capacity? What is the solar power plant? Is there a generator? What is the backup required?How long should the system operate autonomously?
Only then can the power and capacity of the BESS be correctly determined.
The second mistake is to confuse the power of the BESS with the power of the entire enterprise.
In our architecture, the BESS should not be used as the sole power source for the entire load.
In the standard network mode, it operates in parallel with the network and mixes its power into the common AC bus.
For example, if the enterprise consumes 500 kW, this does not mean that all 500 kW must pass through the BESS. The battery can provide its 125 or 250 kW, and the rest is provided by the network.
And the third mistake is to underestimate the integration. The BESS must interact correctly with the PV, network, generator, ATS/TS, meters and EMS.
– What determines the success of a BESS project today: technology, financing, the right business model or high-quality integration?
– I would put the right architecture and integration in the first place.
The technology is already quite mature today. But even a very good battery can be incorrectly integrated.
Our architecture is fundamentally different from the approach when the entire energy flow of the enterprise is passed through a hybrid inverter.
In normal mode, BESS operates in parallel with the grid and adds the necessary power to the common AC bus.
And when the grid disappears, the system changes its role: BESS becomes a grid generator and forms a local network for the load.
And here is a very important advantage.
Solar generation remains independent.
If the enterprise already has grid PV inverters installed, we do not need to replace them with BESS hybrid inverters.
No need to pull DC cables from solar panels to each battery cabinet.
We integrate existing solar generation via AC – from grid PV inverters to our switching cabinet.
For Ukraine, where there are a lot of already installed grid-connected solar power plants, this is a serious practical advantage.
– To what extent is Ukrainian business ready to invest in storage for the sake of economic efficiency, and not just energy security?
– I think this transition is already happening.
Security for Ukrainian business remains critically important. But the company does not want to buy expensive equipment that will only work during an accident.
Therefore, BESS must earn its investment every day.
In normal mode, it can operate for self-consumption and peak shaving, accumulate excess solar energy, and optimize consumption.
And when the network disappears – to provide a reserve.
For example, in the “Vienna Coffee” the 125 kW / 261 kWh system works for self-consumption, peak shaving and backup power, integrated with the existing Huawei 100 kW solar power plant and 80 kW diesel generator.
Therefore, I would formulate it very simply:
The future of BESS is not backup instead of economy, but backup plus economy.
– What Livoltek technological solutions are in the greatest demand today and why?
– We see the greatest interest in C&I solutions – commercial and industrial storage systems.
But I would separately highlight not only BESS itself, but our architecture with TS switch cabinets.
Livoltek has a line of TS-250, TS-500, TS-750, TS-1000 and TS-1250. By scaling with 125 kW BESS blocks, this gives a very wide range of capacities: 250, 375, 500, 625, 750, 875, 1000, 1125 and 1250 kW.
This is important for C&I, because the real load of the enterprise rarely perfectly corresponds to the figure “500” or “1000 kW”.
We can more accurately select the AC architecture for a specific facility, without forcing the client to buy excess capacity.
But even more important is what exactly does this cabinet do in the system.
It allows you to integrate BESS with the grid, load, PV and generator and provides a transition between grid and autonomous modes. Livoltek TS solutions provide configurations for On-grid, Off-grid and On/Off-grid operation.
Therefore, our advantage is not just that there is a 1250 kW cabinet.
The advantage is that we have a broad, scalable AC architecture that allows us to integrate BESS into the real power system of the enterprise.
– What legislative or market changes could most accelerate the development of BESS in Ukraine?
– We need to make the economics of BESS as clear as possible for the investor.
Technically, a modern BESS can already do much more than just reserve the enterprise.
This is self-consumption, peak shaving, demand control, operation according to tariff zones, balancing, frequency regulation, VPP and other system services. Such scenarios are directly provided for in the Livoltek product architecture.
Therefore, the key question now is how to monetize these opportunities in the Ukrainian market.
Clear rules are needed for BESS participation in balancing, ancillary services, electricity trading and aggregation in VPP.
And, of course, a hundred
