06.11.2025
On November 20, Energy Club is gathering key players in the energy market—business, investors, regulators, and government representatives—to discuss practical steps for the industry’s development at the forum “Energy of Freedom: Resilience and New Opportunities for the Energy Storage Systems Market in Ukraine.” Leading experts will focus on topics crucial to Ukraine’s energy independence: state strategy and the regulatory environment, business models and investments, technologies and experience, as well as new opportunities for consumers.
Among the main speakers at the forum is Pavlo Osinsky, Product Manager at Phoenix Contact Ukraine. His expertise will allow for a deep dive into the technical and innovative solutions the market offers today for implementing storage projects, as an ESS is a complex technological system whose reliability and efficiency depend on every component: from control systems to industrial automation and connectors.
Ahead of the forum, in a conversation with the Energy Club media department, Pavlo Osinsky shared his professional vision on the main challenges of implementing energy storage systems in Ukraine—from a lack of customer expertise and technical errors in design to cybersecurity threats. He explained why the controller is becoming the central element of a “smart” BESS, which business models can make such projects profitable, and emphasized the importance of standard harmonization and upskilling market participants.
— Mr. Osinsky, from your point of view, what is the biggest technological challenge in implementing ESS in Ukraine today? Is it the compatibility of equipment from different manufacturers, a shortage of qualified integration engineers, or the software?
— In my opinion, the biggest challenge is the lack of expertise on the customer’s side to correctly formulate technical specifications, including requirements for calculating the economic justification and ensuring the contractor’s proposed and declared characteristics match the equipment’s real capabilities. Furthermore, a systemic flaw is the “customer-seller (contractor)” relationship in the Ukrainian market, namely the absence of economic justification not only for direct profits from BESS operation but also for calculating total cost of ownership (TCO) and return on investment (ROI). In fact, there is a lot of equipment on the market whose components do not provide the declared capabilities regarding autonomy, daily cycle count, mode switching speed, etc. Therefore, the importance of meetings like our forum can hardly be overestimated.
— Our forum is geared towards different consumers: industry, the agricultural sector, and retail. Do these different clients require radically different technological solutions? For example, in terms of components (controllers, protection), what is the difference between a system for a supermarket and one for a large metallurgical plant?
— Of course, the size of the consumer (and, consequently, the storage system) matters for the complexity of the control system for that local energy grid. Regarding surge protection, the size only affects the quantity of protection devices. Very important factors are the number of energy consumers in the local grid’s energy management system, the operational cyclogram, and the peaks and troughs of energy consumption, which are more smoothed out in large enterprises. However, since most enterprises requiring BESS are facilities with a continuous production cycle (what is known as the Process Industry), the differences exist, but they are not as significant as one might expect based on the size difference.
— A modern ESS is not just a battery, but a complex IT system. What is the role of the controller and software (for example, your PLCnext platform) in making a storage system truly “smart” and, most importantly, profitable?
— The role of the controller and the local grid’s energy management system, in general, is key. Executing algorithms for various scenarios (consumption balancing, different functional roles in the energy market) and internal communication between generation and consumption units, synchronizing with each other and with the external grid, require high information processing speed from the controller itself and fast communication over various protocols. Furthermore, for operating in the energy market, fast communication with the market operator must be ensured. Thus, the role of controllers in this system is very significant.
— The forum raises the question of optimal technologies for Ukrainian realities. From the perspective of a component supplier, what are the most common technical mistakes made by integrators or customers when designing ESS in Ukraine?
— As we mentioned earlier, the main problem we often encounter is the lack of quality expertise and in-depth understanding of the nuances of the BESS complex itself, its role in the local energy grid, its capabilities, and, most importantly, real operational experience. There is often dissatisfaction with the results of the BESS operation, the speed of switching from external to local power, voltage sags, etc. However, a meticulous study of the BESS components, documentation, and simple calculations could have lowered expectations or changed the requirements and, indeed, the entire project. External expertise could help, but it is not very common in our market. Furthermore, there are valid questions regarding surge protection and cybersecurity. Suppliers and integrators often declare the compliance of the entire BESS as a complete device with standards, but examining individual components and, often, surge protection devices, makes one doubt the compliance of individual components with standard requirements. Regarding cybersecurity—indeed, BESS manufacturers often install auxiliary routers through which they can have remote access to the storage control system. Obviously, this makes it easier for the manufacturer to diagnose the storage unit they service in a timely and comprehensive manner. Very often, the operator is not informed about the details of this remote monitoring and may not even realize that such remote supervision exists in their control system at all. The device’s communication with the manufacturer probably goes through a VPN, which, although it provides a high level of encryption, does not protect against the possible compromise of network assets on the manufacturer’s side. This situation is not rare. Therefore, the enterprise’s network perimeter defense measures often cannot help. A direct “tunnel” is laid through their “walls” to the control system, and an attacker can compromise the entire network through these remote access devices. This is a critical issue during the state of war in our country. Therefore, it is necessary to thoroughly examine all components of the energy storage unit to understand the danger of cyber threats.
— To what extent does the “intelligence” of the components supplied by Phoenix Contact allow for the implementation of the complex business models we will be discussing? (e.g., price arbitrage, participation in the ancillary services market, creating virtual power plants). Can a “basic” controller do this, or does it require deep automation?
— Of course, the main thing in a control system is a well-thought-out algorithm that considers all possible scenarios and filters out potential prohibited output configurations that may arise from sensor failure, communication loss, etc. Therefore, human intelligence in the control system and algorithm design is primary. Nevertheless, we have ready-made auxiliary programs in the form of software function blocks that significantly facilitate the integration of inverters from other manufacturers into the control system and substantially reduce development time. Complex models in the energy market require the system integrator to develop detailed cyclograms and use advanced control algorithms.
— Phoenix Contact is a German company and a world leader in standards. How critical is the rapid adoption of European standards to simplify project launches in Ukraine? Are our current norms a barrier to your technologies?
— Yes, indeed, despite the fact that the integration of international norms and standards by Ukrainian regulators is purposeful, overall, the lag is significant—both in the form of “atavisms” in the re-certification of certain products and in cybersecurity requirements (EU requirements – NIS, NIS2, CRA). Consequently, the aforementioned cybersecurity issues for BESS are not regulated. Also, a traditional situation for our country is when norms and standards have been adopted and in effect for 10 years, but no sanctions are provided for their non-compliance. Thus, the only purpose of supposedly adopted standards is for end-users to write technical specifications for suppliers. If it’s too expensive for the customer, or they don’t know about these standards, then there is no one to demand them. Therefore, the need to meet requirements for equipment compliance with standards falls on the customer and depends on their expertise in this area, which brings us back to the question of the availability and quality of expertise on the customer’s side.
— As a representative of a leading global technology manufacturer, what is the main message you want to convey to Ukrainian investors and consumers at the Energy Club forum “Energy of Freedom: Resilience and New Opportunities for the Energy Storage Systems Market in Ukraine” on November 20?
— Scientia Vinces – translated from Latin: knowledge conquers. Enhancing the qualifications, knowledge, and skills of all market players is the only path to a positive future.
