Serhii Kravchuk, Director of Electricity Trading and Supply in KNESS, took part in a press conference organized by the Ukrainian Wind Energy Association. Members of the UWEA committees and representatives of businesses in the renewable energy sector summarized the results of operation in the RES and ESS market in 2025.
Key points by Serhii Kravchuk, as presented at the conference:
2025 outcomes: success of special auctions held
- In 2024–2025, the transmission system operator successfully held special auctions for the procurement of ancillary services. As a result, the need for frequency containment reserve (FCR) services was completely covered. For investors, this means a predictable cash flow, as the tariff for the procurement of services is fixed for five years.
- This year, KNESS has commissioned over 80 MW of ESS projects for providing frequency containment reserve (FCR) and frequency restoration reserve (aFRRs) services. In terms of the installed capacity of all facilities commissioned this year, this amounts to over 100 MW of capacity.
On the key directions for the development of the energy storage market and KNESS Group in the next 3–5 years
1) Aggregation: operational activities and management of constructed energy facilities
Thanks to the technical possibility of delegating the rights and obligations of special auction winners to a third party—an aggregator—two key scenarios are being implemented:
- the service provider may take equipment out of service for repair without interrupting service provision by using other electrical installations included in the aggregated group;
- some auction winners who are formally entitled to provide the service but are unable to exercise this right for various reasons may delegate their obligations to other electrical installations in an aggregated group.
KNESS is actively developing the aggregation direction and plans to continue next year.
2) Construction of new energy storage installations for energy time shifting
Today, KNESS has ESS development projects across almost the entire territory of Ukraine. This is a pool of facilities with a total capacity of approximately 200 MW.
3) Wind project development combined with ESS
KNESS is also actively involved in the wind energy projects development. In this area, in addition to selecting the wind power plant’s location and the connection point, there is an important technical task for the implementation of the WPP project along with ESS: make the most effective use of the connection point and select the optimal ratio between connection capacity and the capacities of generation and energy storage systems; and this means a ratio other than 1:1.
Steps necessary for the growth of distributed generation in Ukraine
- pursuing a strategic course of action to harmonize Ukrainian and European energy legislation and integrate the energy markets of Ukraine and European countries.
- to accelerate the pace of restoring the power system in terms of creating new generating capacities, it is necessary to liberalize procedural aspects related to the development of new facilities, starting with permits for the construction start and ending with connection to electrical grids.
- an essential component not only for the successful implementation of an energy facility, but also for its subsequent operation, including effective commercial operation, is the stability of regulatory and legislative conditions, as well as the fulfillment of commitments made by stakeholders.
The recording of the press conference can be found via the link.
We would like to thank the participants of the press conference for the productive dialogue and cooperation, as well as UWEA and Andriy Konechenkov, Chairman of the Board of the Ukrainian Wind Energy Association, for moderating.
