Decentralization of energy: Ukraine relies on small and renewable energy sources
The Ukrainian energy system will be restored not only by rebuilding the old thermal power generation facilities, but also by building several hundred new smaller plants.
“We can’t afford to choose only one path right now. We need to restore the damaged as much as possible and start building a new generation distributed geographically. This is the only way,” said Volodymyr Kudrytskyi, Chairman of the Board of NPC Ukrenergo, in an interview with Telegraph.
According to him, the construction of a new generation will not be quick and may not even be a story about the winter of 2025/26. But Volodymyr Kudrytskyi said that the first “new wave” projects would be implemented by the beginning of the 2024/25 heating season.
The new distributed generation will have to completely or almost completely replace the existing thermal generation in two to three years, as explained by the head of Ukrenergo. “And it will not be a one-to-one replacement, i.e., a megawatt of coal-fired thermal power plant with a megawatt of gas turbine or biofuel plant. It will be the replacement of a conventional megawatt of thermal power plant with a mix of industrial wind turbines and solar panels, large storage systems, gas highly maneuverable stations, and possibly biofuel stations,” he said.
According to him, instead of a 1000 MW thermal coal plant, there will be 100 small 10 MW stations. The structure of the energy market and the architecture of the power system will be changed. Nuclear power will remain the basis of Ukrainian generation. However, renewable energy sources, such as solar and wind power plants, will be developed because they are cheaper than all the others. In addition, the CEO of Ukrenergo hopes that hydropower will be developed, as it is a competitive advantage of any energy system. “It always means that electricity will be cheaper, and there is flexibility in the system to balance it,” he said.
According to Volodymyr Kudrytskyi, distributed generation will help protect the Ukrainian power system from Russian shelling.
“It will be harder for the enemy to hit 200 small power plants of various types than 20-25 large power plants,” he said.
