The National Energy and Utilities Regulatory Commission (NEURC) approved a report on the assessment of the conformity (sufficiency) of generating capacities for the future 10 years.
The report was prepared by the system operator NPC Ukrenergo.
"It (the Adequacy Report—) provides an answer to the question of what the optimal structure of generation should be that should be able to cover consumption in the power system at any given time within a 10-year period in the future," Volodymyr Kudrytskyi, head of Ukrenergo, said.
The analysis of Ukrenergo indicates that the main trend in the energy system will be the replacement of obsolete units of coal TPPs with a combination of increased NPP production, generation from RES (renewable energy plants). The balancing capacities of shunting natural gas power plants and energy storage systems will also be developed.
"It is important to stress that these changes will occur not so much because of the legislation requirements or the international obligations to combat climate change that Ukraine has undertaken, but because it is simply cheaper, and therefore more profitable for the consumer," Kudrytskyi summed up.
To implement the Report target scenario, it is needed to do two main things:
- To build new shunting capacities (at least 1-2 GW) and electric energy storage systems (at least 500 MW). The natural market environment for such facilities is the ancillary services market, as well as the balancing market.
- To ensure the unification of the "Ukrainian" energy system with the European one and the corresponding unification of our markets.