Ingrid Capacity and Ukrenergo to cooperate on energy storages to secure Ukraine’s power system

In the agreement – which was signed at the ReBuild Ukraine conference in Warsaw – Ingrid Capacity and Ukrenergo express their mutual desire to establish a collaborative relationship to strengthen energy security through the use of energy storage technology.

As a result of the partnership, Ingrid Capacity expresses its aspiration to invest up to 300 MEUR over the next few years in developing and managing energy storages in Ukraine. In collaboration with international financial institutions, the parties hope to work together to secure the necessary funding for these projects. However, given the challenging circumstances caused by the ongoing conflict, raising this amount may present certain difficulties.

“During Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the intruder has targeted Ukraine’s energy sector with the obvious aim to damage the power infrastructure and further strain the daily life for Ukrainians. Ingrid Capacity is proud to take part in rebuilding Ukraine, while helping to create a more resilient infrastructure. The cooperation will also give us unique learnings that will be crucial as Ingrid Capacity aims to be part in developing a more robust grid all over Europe,” says Ibrahim Baylan, Member of the Board at Ingrid Capacity.

In March 2023 the Ukraine government set the goal to have 50 percent of the country’s power from renewable energy sources and 50 percent from nuclear energy by 2035. Solar and wind are deemed harder to damage, therefore constitutes a more stable and resilient system both short and long term. Despite the war, these sources are now rapidly being built out. But as is the case in all systems with heavy reliance on renewable sources, battery energy storage is crucial to balance the grid.

“Such technologies as energy storage systems are necessary for the Ukrainian power system to balance the growing capacity of renewable energy sources. According to Ukrenergo’s forecasts, by 2034-2035 we will need about 0.8 GW of storage in the energy system, considering the active growth of renewables and the decarbonisation of our energy mix. We are grateful to Ingrid Capacity for helping us not only to implement the storage system projects, but also to significantly increase the stability and reliability of the Ukrainian power system. Our goal is to implement solutions for the safe integration of renewables, which will not affect the functioning of our power grid, but add to its stability. We are confident that our cooperation will become an example for investors, who want to invest in the development and strengthening of Ukrainian and European energy security,” says Volodymyr Kudrytskyi, CEO of Ukrenergo.

The agreement was signed by Volodymyr Kudrytskyi and Ibrahim Baylan, with the presence of German Galushchenko, Ukraine’s Minister of Energy, and Johan Forssell, Sweden’s Minister for International Development Cooperation and Foreign Trade.

About Ukrenergo Ukrenergo is the transmission system operator for electricity in Ukraine, one of the largest transmission system operators in Europe. The company performs the functions of operational and technological control of the integrated power system of Ukraine, as well as electricity transmission by trunk power grids from generation to distribution networks. Ukrenergo also ensures technical capability of electricity exports and imports with European countries. In the Ukrainian electricity market, Ukrenergo performs the functions of Commercial Metering Administrator and Settlements Administrator. Starting from 16 March 2022, the Ukrainian power system has been operating jointly with the power network of ENTSO-E Continental Europe. On 26 April 2022, Ukrenergo received a status of an Observer Member at ENTSO-E.