On May 13 in Brussels, during the roundtable “Strengthening EU energy infrastructure security: Learning from Ukraine,” jointly organized with the local office of the Heinrich Böll Foundation, DiXi Group President Olena Pavlenko and Research Director Roman Nitsovych presented practical principles for planning, managing, and investing in energy system resilience under wartime conditions. Their findings could serve as a practical foundation for shaping future European Union energy security policy.
The team presented selected elements from 11 key lessons on energy resilience formulated by DiXi Group in a dedicated study. These principles cover reducing dependence on centralized generation, developing flexible capacity, strengthening grids, standardizing equipment and repair solutions, integrating physical, cyber, and other forms of protection, building reserves, crisis communications, adaptive demand management, and regulatory policies capable of ensuring rapid recovery.
During her speech, Olena Pavlenko emphasized that Ukraine has already progressed from emergency repairs, manual grid reconfiguration, and crisis response to developing systemic approaches that the EU is only beginning to integrate into its own strategies.
“Large-scale generation facilities and transmission networks are easy targets for the enemy. Ukraine’s experience proves that resilience must be embedded into the system from the planning stage. These practical lessons can already be used by EU countries today to build a new model for protecting critical energy infrastructure”, – stressed the President of DiXi Group.
Roman Nitsovych presented an updated analysis of Ukraine’s energy system, outlining the scale of losses, the pace of recovery, and the development of components such as distributed generation and energy storage systems. He stressed that the full-scale war has accelerated the emergence of a new sector architecture based on decentralization and technological adaptation.
“In addition to repairing damaged infrastructure, we are forced to rebuild the energy system in real time, shaping a new architecture that must be more distributed, more flexible, and more resilient to prolonged physical attacks. Just two years ago, Ukraine had only 2 MW of storage installations; today, that figure has grown to nearly 600 MW”, – noted DiXi Group’s Research Director.
He also emphasized that energy resilience cannot rely on a single solution or approach. It is built through the simultaneous integration of a comprehensive set of elements: distributed generation, resilient grids, efficient logistics, standardized equipment, multi-layered physical protection, demand-side management, crisis communications, and regulatory policies that minimize barriers to rapid recovery.
During the discussion, participants from the International Energy Agency (IEA), the European Commission, EU member state governments, and leading think tanks confirmed that Ukraine’s lessons should already be integrated into European energy policy. In particular, IEA Caspian and Black Sea Programme Manager Talya Vatman stressed that resilience must become not merely a technical standard, but a new culture of planning, preparedness, and rapid response. The organization believes Ukraine’s lessons are applicable to all countries, as threats to critical infrastructure are rapidly increasing not only in wartime, but also due to cyber risks, sabotage, and climate challenges.
European Commission representatives highlighted proposals currently being prepared as part of a new legislative package in the energy sector. In Brussels, there is growing recognition that energy resilience extends beyond sectoral policy and is becoming part of the EU’s broader civil and military protection framework.
Participation in the discussion was also made possible through the support of the International Renaissance Foundation within the framework of the project “Strengthening Ukraine’s Resilience in Energy” (SURE)”.
