Russian War Against Ukraine: Energy Dimension | DiXi Group Alert – weekly review

September 4 – 10, 2023

Summary

• As of September 11, due to hostilities and other reasons, 421 settlements remained without electricity.
• Ukraine lost 35-40% of its annual fresh water reserves due to the explosion of the Kakhovskaya HPP – CEO of Ukrhydroenergo Ihor Syrota.
• IAEA experts at the Zaporizhia NPP reported numerous explosions, which indicates a possible increase in military activity. There are mines around the ZNPP remaining, while the occupiers do not provide access for the IAEA experts to the floors of reactors No. 1, 2, 5, and 6 and full access to all turbine halls.
• In August, the Ministry of Energy received humanitarian aid from 32 donors from 18 countries, weighing about 258 tons, including transformers, generators, cars, cables, and other equipment needed for infrastructure repairs and restoration. The aid was distributed
  among 26 companies in the electricity, coal, oil, gas, and nuclear industries.
• The first set of nuclear fuel produced by Westinghouse Electric Sweden AB in cooperation with Energoatom was loaded into the VVER-440 reactor of the Rivne NPP. The NPP operator of Ukraine, Energoatom, also signed a confidentiality agreement and a memorandum of understanding in the field of uranium conversion with ConverDyn.
• Against the background of low trading intensity in the segment of bilateral contracts and the surplus on the “day-ahead” market, the export of electricity to Slovakia increased. This was facilitated by repairing one NPP power unit more than two weeks ahead of schedule.
• Meanwhile, the Regulator asks Ukrenergo to urgently provide information on the reasons for receiving emergency assistance for balancing the power system in July-August.
• Ukraine is counting on the decision of ENTSO-E, which will allow to increase the permitted cross-border import capacity from 1.2 GW to 2 GW – Minister of Energy Herman Galushchenko.
• The Regulator published several draft regulatory acts. The draft Procedure for acquiring, terminating, and suspending the status of a data transfer administrator, which was developed to comply with REMIT, was also approved. The draft amendments to the GTS Code envisage postponing the application of the fee for balancing neutrality for one more year.
• An additional alternative draft law has been submitted to the Verkhovna Rada on the specifics of financial settlements with RES producers, whose capacities are temporarily under occupation or in the territories of hostilities.
• The government approved amendments to the Procedure for conducting public hearings in the environmental impact assessment process, resuming holding the hearings in videoconference mode.
• The Ministry of Energy has published a draft resolution of the CMU, which envisages obliging gas suppliers to create an insurance reserve of 3% of the planned supply volumes for the next month and store it in underground storage facilities.
• The renegotiation of contracts between heat producers and Naftogaz for gas supply under the amended PSO scheme is ongoing. At the same time, the Association of Cities of Ukraine points to a number of supplemented risks.
• The international working group on sanctions against Russia has prepared two new documents – on strengthening energy sanctions and the importance of confiscating russian state assets.