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

Dear subscribers! Due to the suspension of funding for all US foreign assistance programmes for 90 days, the weekly review ‘Russian War Against Ukraine: Energy Dimension’, which used to be prepared within the framework of the USAID Energy Sector Transparency project, will be temporarily published in a limited format – as a summary of the main events in the sector.

At the same time, DiXi Group NGO has prepared a survey for subscribers to receive feedback on the priority thematic sections of the review that should be continued to be covered. This will allow the team to match the interests of readers with available resources and develop an optimal format for the weekly review during the period of suspension of USAID support.

We would like to thank our audience for their continued interest in the weekly review ‘Russia’s War on Ukraine: The Energy Dimension’. We would also like to assure you that we will continue to look for opportunities to develop this information and analytical product in order to meet the interest of our audience in a timely and high–quality manner.

Survey in English (for international readers)

April 14 – 20

• During the week, Ukraine’s power system remained balanced and electricity consumption gradually decreased. The main reasons were significant warming and mostly sunny weather throughout the country, which ensured high efficiency of domestic solar power plants.
• Commercial electricity exports increased by 2.4 times to 35.1 GWh over the week. In turn, electricity imports fell by 68% to 26.6 GWh. Thus, Ukraine recorded a positive weekly balance in transborder electricity trade for the first time in 11 weeks.
• The monthly Base BCM (bilateral contracts market) index for April remained at 4,782.5 UAH/MWh (–14.8% compared to March).
• The average hourly price of electricity on the day–ahead market (DAM Base index) decreased to 4,310 UAH/MWh (–1.4%). The total volume of electricity sold on the Ukrainian DAM decreased to 506.3 GWh (–11.6%).
• Draft Law No. 13171 has been submitted to the Verkhovna Rada, which provides for amendments to the Law “On the Electricity Market” aimed at strengthening state control over the security of electricity supply. The Ministry of Energy is granted legislative powers to approve the schedule of repairs of power plants, approve the schedule of coal accumulation at TPPs and CHPs, and determine the maximum consumption of electric power. The law also introduces penalties for violations of the schedules of electricity outages. Besides, the act also obliges the Ministry of Energy to provide an opinion on the priority of technical solutions for the development of electricity distribution systems provided for in the relevant development plans of electricity DSOs.
• The NEURC approved amendments to the Distribution Systems Code, which provide for the transition to new standards for the nominal voltage of 230/400 V (instead of 220 V) from July 1, 2025. One of the key innovations is the establishment of clear limits for the permissible voltage deviation: from 207 to 253 V (±10% of the nominal value of 230 V).
• In the first quarter of 2025, Ukrenergo reduced its debt to the participants of the balancing market by a quarter to UAH 13.7 billion (UAH 11.3 billion to the balancing service providers and UAH 2.4 billion to the balance responsible parties). At the
  same time, the total debt of these same participants to the Ukrenergo increased by 6.6% and reached a record UAH 37.5 billion at the end of March.
• Physical imports of gas from Hungary during the reporting week (April 13–19) amounted to 48.6 mcm (+43.2% compared to the previous week), from Poland – to 24 mcm (–1.9%), and from Moldova – to 4.7 mcm (2.2 times more compared to the previous week).
• As of April 19, 0.68 bcm of gas was accumulated in Ukrainian underground gas storage facilities (UGSs), or 2.3% of their total working volume. During the reporting week, 44.4 mcm were withdrawn from UGSs (60.7% less than a week earlier). At
  the same time, the injection season started on April 17: the total volume of gas injected into the UGSs amounted to 11.7 mcm.
• The Paris Judicial Court has recognized and authorized the enforcement of a Hague arbitration award that obliges Russia to pay Naftogaz Group more than USD 5 billion for the illegal expropriation of its Crimean assets. Naftogaz has already registered
  encumbrances on a number of assets owned by the Russian state and located in France, with a total value of more than EUR 120 million.
• The Supervisory Board of Ukrnafta heard the report of the company’s top management for 2024. Last year, the company earned UAH 16.4 billion in net profit, attracted a EUR 80 million loan and a EUR 44 million grant from the EBRD for building gas–fired generation, as well as almost EUR 75 million in grants from the governments of Sweden and Norway.
• Naftogaz has already contracted 1.5 bcm of imported gas (including 800 mcm purchased in late 2023–early 2024) and raised EUR 430 million in financing to prepare for the autumn–winter period of 2025/26. The company is also in talks with the government and international financial institutions to raise EUR 1 billion to further purchase more than 2 bcm of gas.
• On April 18, Minister of Finance of Ukraine Sergii Marchenko and Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Japan to Ukraine Masashi Nakagome signed a Note Exchange Agreement providing for a loan of up to JPY 471.9 billion (approximately USD 3 billion) to Ukraine. The loan will be serviced and repaid from future profits received from frozen Russian sovereign assets. The financing is provided for 30 years and will be used to support priority budgetary needs and contribute to the reconstruction and development of Ukraine.