Until July 2023, Ukraine paid money for electricity to power plants in temporarily occupied territories, without confidence that these stations even existed. How could this happen
The state enterprise “Guaranteed Buyer” paid UAH 367 million in January–May for the production of electricity to solar power plants in the temporarily occupied territories of Zaporozhye and Kherson regions, People’s Deputy Andrey Zhupanin reported on August 7 on his Facebook page.
On the same day, Guaranteed Buyer published an explanation on its website:
- "GarPok" operates within the limits of the regulations and regulations in force in Ukraine;
- GarPok receives data on who to pay and how much from another state-owned company, Ukrenergo;
- At the beginning of 2023, GarPok received clarification from the Ministry for the Reintegration of Temporarily Occupied Territories of Ukraine that there are no restrictions on payments to renewable energy producers in the occupied territories;
- In July 2023, NEURC decided that the green tariff will be applied only to those companies that produce electricity into the Ukrainian energy system.
- “Guaranteed Buyer” is a state-owned company that buys electricity from renewable energy producers at a high feed-in tariff and sells it on the market at market prices lower than the feed-in tariff. This difference from GarPoka is covered by another state company, Ukrenergo. As of July 25, Ukrenergo’s debt to Guaranteed Buyer was UAH 24.8 billion.
The topic gained significantly greater resonance after the publication of the Bihus.Info investigation on August 17. Among the companies that received payments under the feed-in tariff in the occupied territories: solar stations “KD Energy 2”, “Natsprod”, “Restorative Energy of Zaporozhye”, “Green Energy Tokmak” and “Grandpower LLC”. These companies, according to journalists, are associated with the deputy head of the office of President Andrei Ermak, Rostislav Shurma.
“The co-owner of KD Energy 2 and Restorative Energy of Zaporozhye is the brother of the official of the OP Rostislav Shurma, Oleg Shurma. The “Natsprod” station is also mentioned among the ongoing projects on the corporate website, where the “green” projects of Oleg Shurma and partners are collected, the investigation says. “The co-owner of Green Energy Tokmak and Grandpower LLC is Ruslan Bozhko, a former subordinate of Rostislav Shurma, who is considered a person close to him.”
In addition, according to journalists, payments were received by the SES of the companies “Skifia-Solar-1” and “Skifia-Solar-2” by businessman Vasily Khmelnitsky and partners, as well as a number of other, less well-known manufacturers.
In total, in the temporarily occupied territories of Zaporozhye and Kherson regions there are green stations of 66 companies, says the head of Guaranteed Buyer Artem Nekrasov. Of these companies, 44 companies received payments under the feed-in tariff. The remaining 22 companies reported that their stations were either destroyed or had suspended electricity generation.
For example, the largest player in the Ukrainian renewable energy market, Rinat Akhmetov’s DTEK, did not receive a feed-in tariff for its power plants under occupation. “At the beginning of the war, they were mothballed by company employees. The station personnel were mostly evacuated to territory controlled by the Ukrainian authorities,” the company’s press service reported.
Too many unknowns
It is not known for certain whether these 44 companies actually produced electricity into the Ukrainian energy system and whether they were destroyed. It is also unknown where electricity is supplied to the occupied territories. “We don’t have such data,” says Nekrasov.
The head of Ukrenergo, Vladimir Kudrytsky, explained at a briefing on August 18 that his company does not have information about every power plant in the country and whether they are connected to the Ukrainian energy system. We do not see these power plants in our networks. We receive data from oblenergos,” he says. “We don’t know when we get the data whether this power plant is operational and whether it works synchronously with the Ukrainian energy system.”
Information about these stations in Ukrenergo came from local oblenergos - Zaporozhyeoblenergo and Khersonoblenergo, which received data from the producers themselves and could not check them in the occupied territories.
According to Kudrytsky, back in November 2022, Ukrenergo “noticed certain discrepancies, that some stations may operate in occupied territory and not belong to the Ukrainian energy system.” “We raised this issue and it was resolved so that these stations should not receive payment. Now they don’t get it,” he says. Since July 2023, Ukrenergo has been reporting to GarPoku that all power plants in the temporarily occupied territory do not produce electricity into the Ukrainian energy system.
Also, according to Nekrasov, Ukrenergo began to revise information for previous months. So far, GarPok has received a data update only for April, where these 44 facilities no longer produce anything. However, previously GarPok paid these companies UAH 78 million for production in April.
Now GarPok has sent letters to these companies asking them to either return the funds received or take them into account as payment of a debt. GarPok itself owes these companies UAH 1.8 billion.
Only one company agreed to return the money, says Nekrasov, without naming it. Some companies agreed to credit these funds as debt repayment, but most refused.
However, it is unknown when exactly these stations stopped producing electricity into the Ukrainian energy system.
In June, according to Nekrasov, GarPok received a letter from Ukrenergo, which reported, citing data from Zaporozhyeoblenergo and Khersonoblenergo, that some of the stations in the occupied territories probably do not operate synchronously with the Ukrainian energy system. “It is impossible to establish a clear date for the disappearance of the electrical connection, but according to Ukrhydroenergo data, it is November 12, 2022,” Nekrasov quotes a copy of the Khersonoblenergo letter. Why is the only source of information about the connection of the Ukrainian energy system with the temporarily occupied territories is Ukrhydroenergo, and not Ukrenergo or the Ministry of Energy? Another unanswered question.
It will be possible to determine whether these stations worked and whether they produced electricity into the Ukrainian energy system only after their de-occupation, Nekrasov notes. Until this time, the government and parliament must clearly regulate the activities of production in the temporarily occupied territories, says Nekrasov.
