In 2024, 835 MW of new decentralized energy facilities were connected to the grid, Institute of Economic Research (IER) estimated in its end-of-the-year report “2024 – A Year of Challenges and Changes: The MEMU Team’s Perspective.”
Massive construction of distributed energy resources became a response to Russia’s attacks on large power generation facilities that started in autumn 2022 and have continued into 2025.
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Over the year, 835 MW of decentralized facilities were connected in Ukraine, with financing secured for an additional 430 MW under state support programs, EIR wrote.
The estimated figure includes both businesses and state institutions becoming less dependent on centralized facilities.
The updated figures from Ukraine’s central bank, the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU), even show 470 MW secured with state support programs, Ukraine’s central bank wrote.
In 2024, the businesses and the state connected co-generation plants worth 208 MW, the NBU wrote.
The second place is secured by 141 MW of solar power plants, 118 MW is secured by diesel and gasoline generators, according to the NBU.
Ukraine also received international aid. One of many examples is receiving a high-voltage autotransformer for the Ukrenergo main network, funded by USAID.
Kyiv Post previously wrote that the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) launched a €700 million portfolio risk-sharing program with Ukrainian banks – the Energy Security Support Facility.
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“Ukraine received humanitarian aid from 36 countries. Donors to the Ukraine Energy Support Fund committed over €1 billion in financial assistance,” IER wrote.
Ukraine has lost more than half its pre-war energy capacity, Kyiv Post previously wrote. Official figures point to Ukraine having lost more than half of its power generation capacity due to infrastructure being damaged, destroyed, or forced under Russian occupation. The reality is likely worse, with a fifth of total installed capacity thought to remain.
Integration with ENTSO-E, the European Network of Transmission System Operators for Electricity, allowed Ukraine to import 1.8 GW of electricity during harsh missile strikes and blackouts throughout the country.
ENTSO-E increased the volumes of electricity Ukraine and Moldova can import from the neighboring EU countries from 1.8 GW to 2.1 GW, allowing the country to increase electricity imports during blackout months.
Distributed energy is the key short-term solution in circumstances of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine and regular missile strikes that intend to freeze the country.
However, building a decentralized network is an anti-crisis decision, and a complex one.
“To make it work, we need a gas network, electric power network, and heat network to sell the heat they produce,” Dragon Capital senior analyst Denis Sakva told Kyiv Post.
In addition, centralized thermal energy cannot be replaced overnight.
“You would need 500 one-MW generators to replace a Kyiv TPP that generates 500 MW,” Sakva said, adding that TPPs producing 20-300 MW are still objects large enough to become a target.
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