Lessons of Resilience from Ukraine: Olena Pavlenko on decentralized generation and the flexibility of the energy system during the World Bank webinar
After the second heating season during the full-scale war, the development of decentralized generation and increased flexibility of the power system became necessary solutions to increase the resilience of the power system.
President of DiXi Group shared insights on these decisions during her presentation at the World Bank webinar on “Climate and Disaster Risk Informed Electric Grid Infrastructure Planning and Operations”.
“Last winter, we observed how Ukrainian cities tried to secure electricity during blackouts by using backup power sources and also through a switching schedule, when utilities were supplied with electricity in turn. Zhytomyr was one of the cities that successfully coped with the challenges,” said the president of the think tank.
At the same time, she emphasized key short-term solutions that Ukraine implemented to withstand the “war winters”.
“I want to highlight three elements. Firstly, the stimulation of distributed generation during martial law. The lessons learned for many local communities and cities in Ukraine was that overly centralized supply can sometimes pose a risk to system resilience. Therefore, many in Ukraine are now discussing new opportunities for the local generation.
Secondly, expanded electricity imports. Thirdly, improvement of electricity supply for critical infrastructure and local resilience. The Regulator amended Transmission System Code to enable operation of parts of the power system in an isolated/”island” mode within DSO networks (distribution system operators),” the expert shared.
For long-term solutions to increase energy resilience, Olena Pavlenko mentioned the collaborative efforts of DiXi Group with the Ministry of Economy of Ukraine and the “NASU Institute for Economics and Forecasting” in developing the National Energy and Climate Plan. The draft plan includes goals such as reducing the level of import dependency to 33%, reducing the share of a single supplier (nuclear fuel) to 60%, and more. The expert also shared information on the implementation of new solutions to achieve these goals.
