“The balancing electricity market in Ukraine has found itself in a deep debt crisis, which is already directly affecting the industry’s investment attractiveness. Debt in this segment has grown to tens of billions of hryvnias and continues to accumulate. Experts warn: under such conditions, new energy projects are simply not launched. This was stated by Olha, a partner of the Altelaw&Sempra legal company, head of the legal committee of the Ukrainian Wind Energy Association”, — write on: ua.news
The balancing electricity market in Ukraine has found itself in a deep debt crisis, which is already directly affecting the industry’s investment attractiveness. Debt in this segment has grown to tens of billions of hryvnias and continues to accumulate. Experts warn: under such conditions, new energy projects are simply not launched. About this stated partner of the Altelaw&Sempra law firm, head of the legal committee of the Ukrainian Wind Energy Association Olha Savchenko.
According to her, the scale of indebtedness has grown rapidly and has already reached levels that, until recently, seemed unlikely for this segment of the market. “As of November 20, 2025, the debt of balancing market participants to NEC Ukrenergo reached UAH 41 billion — a level that until recently seemed unlikely for this segment,” Savchenko said.
She emphasized that the increase in debts during the year was not one-time or situational. On the contrary, the problem is systemic. “During 2025, the debt increased by 18.6%, and this growth was not episodic, but systemic, which indicates deep structural problems in the architecture of the balancing market,” the expert emphasized.
In parallel with this, according to her, counter-indebtedness on the part of the system operator is accumulating. “The debt of NEC Ukrenergo to the participants of the balancing market reached UAH 21 billion in mid-November, setting a historical maximum and increasing by 27% compared to the beginning of the year,” said Savchenko.
As a result, as the expert notes, a closed debt model was actually formed on the balancing market, which constantly reproduces itself. “Thus, a self-reproducing closed circle of debts is recorded in the balancing system,” she explained.
According to Savchenko, the problem lies not only in the amount of debt itself, but also in how this situation affects the decisions of investors. Under the current state of calculations, any regulatory simplifications or incentives cease to work. “Under this state of calculations, regulatory simplifications or incentives cease to be an argument for an investor, in particular, when making decisions on energy storage projects,” she emphasized.
At the same time, it is the development of energy storage systems that is critically important for the stable operation of the energy system. However, the debt crisis actually blocks this direction and scares away potential investors.
According to the expert, the situation needs a systemic, not a one-off, solution. The key steps should be changes in approaches to special duties and real overcoming of the problem of non-payments. “First of all, it is about revising the PSO mechanisms as a systemic step, as well as about real settlement of the problem of non-payment of large debtors, including critical infrastructure enterprises,” Savchenko concluded.
Also, Ukraine is looking for allies to protect the energy system.
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