Ukraine signs agreement to join EU energy system
On Wednesday June 28 in Brussels, the company Ukrenergo signed an agreement on the conditions for the joining of Ukraine’s energy system with the European energy system ENTSO-E.
As reported by the company’s press service, this document consists of three main parts: a catalog of the conditions which need to be met for joining; a list of necessary additional research, and a roadmap.
Although technically operation with ENTSO-E and operation with Russia, Belarus and Moldova are similar, there are different economic models underlying them. Synchronization with ENTSO-E requires not only a number of difficult technological actions, but also the restructuring of the entire electrical energy market of Ukraine, and a transition to absolute market mechanisms, where any consumer in Ukraine can import electrical energy from any EU country, and any producer of electrical energy can export it to the end user in Europe.
For this reason, synchronization with ENTSO-E is impossible without thorough implementation of an electrical energy market model according to the requirements of the Third Energy Package.
The integration of Ukrainian energy system with that of Continental Europe ENTSO-E is one of the top priorities directing its development.
As early as May 2016, the European Network of Transmission System Operators for Electricity (ENTSO-E, previously UCTE) reviewed and approved the application for Ukraine’s united energy system and Moldova’s energy system to join as one regulatory unit, as a synchronized UCTE zone. A decision was made to create the “Ukraine-Moldova/UCTE” project group, headed by a representative of the Romanian company Transelectrica.
In January 2008, the UCTE authorities approved the “Technical task of the project for Ukraine and Moldova to join the electrical system of UCTE”. The project was divided into three stages: A – research into the state of the energy systems of the applicants, development of a catalog of actions and the preparation of an agreement which Ukrenergo and Moldelectrica must sign with ENTSO-E; B – the implementation of the specified actions; C – preparation and testing in separate operation mode and the joining of the energy systems.
In 2015, the research was successfully completed, and at the start of 2016, contractors provided detailed accounts to the client, all members of the consortium and the project group. The results of the studies formed the basis for the “Agreement on the conditions of the future joining of the energy systems of Ukraine and Moldova with the energy system of continental Europe”.
On the 23rd of May 2017 at a plenary session of the ENTSO-E regional group, Continental Europe coordinated the final content of this agreement and suggested that it be signed by all system operators belonging to the ENTSO-E regional group, as well as Moldelectrica SE and NEK Ukrenergo.