Following up on a meeting with the participants of the 2020 mediation in the Ukrainian renewables sector on 16 March 2023 in Kyiv, the Energy Community Secretariat launched on March 27, 2023, a process meant to settle the current problems faced by the sector.
The post-mediation process focuses on unresolved issues, addresses new challenges occurring after the full-scale war of aggression by Russia and intends to help restoring trust among the key actors. In the immediate, the process will focus on the settlement of outstanding debts by the Guaranteed Buyer towards renewable energy producers, revising the formula for imbalance payments to the Guaranteed Buyer and the corporate governance reform of the Guaranteed Buyer.
In 2020, the Secretariat’s Dispute Resolution and Negotiation Center, had mediated a settlement agreement between renewable investors in Ukraine and the government, which was later integrated in Ukrainian renewable energy legislation. While outstanding debts had been settled in the wake of the agreement, the war exposed again the underlying problems in the sector, notably the lack of liquidity and the electricity market governance. The post-mediation process intends to address these issues by developing options for their resolution with the involvement of all relevant stakeholders.
“To follow up on the settlement agreement is important not only to address the current challenges faced by the sector, which are indeed significant. This process is even more important now that Ukraine starts preparing for the transition of a green economy, in which renewable energy is supposed to take center stage. What we need to prepare for a is a renaissance of renewable energy in Ukraine,” said Deputy Director Dirk Buschle, who had mediated the dispute in 2020.
Currently, at the initiative of the Energy Community Secretariat, a working group is being set up to to follow-up on the “left-overs” from the mediation, address new challenges in the wake of the full-scale war of aggression by Russia and help restoring trust among the key actors.
