Ukraine has not created sufficient conditions for large-scale private investment in new decentralized generation due to the debt crisis in the energy market and the persistence of manual regulation. This was stated by analyst and communications head of the Ukraine Facility Platform, Mariia Tsaturian.
According to her, one of the main barriers remains the debt crisis in the energy market, the volume of which already exceeds EUR 2 billion. To attract private capital, it is necessary not only to pay off accumulated debt but also to stop the emergence of new debts and ensure coverage of the difference in cases where tariffs are set below cost.
"As long as debts grow, an investor will not believe that they will be paid and will build generation only for themselves," emphasized Tsaturian.
She named the preservation of manual control over the energy market as the second systemic barrier. As part of European integration, Ukraine has already undertaken commitments regarding the independence of the NEURC, the integration of markets with the EU, and the gradual abandonment of manual price regulation.
"It is precisely these reforms that deprive the state of the ability to manually distribute money and access to the market, and therefore weaken the system in the long term," noted Tsaturian
In her opinion, without solving the debt problem and transitioning to predictable market rules, business will not have sufficient incentives to invest in generation, which is necessary for the decentralization of the energy system.
Earlier, ICC Ukraine again appealed to the NEURC with a call to set maximum price caps at UAH 18,000/MWh and gradually bring the pricing mechanism closer to the principles of the EU energy market. The organization emphasized that the dependence of the profitability of new flexible generation on administrative decisions regarding the price ceiling increases regulatory risks and complicates the attraction of private capital.