Int'l assistance vital, but full development of distributed power generation in Ukraine depends on private businesses - Ukrenergo CEO

MOSCOW. May 13 (Interfax) - Work with international partners aimed at providing Ukraine with everything needed for the sustainability of the energy system is ongoing, but the development of distributed generation, including gas generation, depends primarily on private businesses, NEC Ukrenergo CEO Vladimir Kudritsky said.

"The more gas or any other generation will be in the system, the better. Now almost any type of generation in the energy system is in demand. But if we are talking about full and sustainable coverage of electricity demand, only private businesses can provide the required scale of financing," Kudritsky said in a statement to Ukrainian media.

Donor funds are very important for emergency needs, and there are currently coordinated talks ongoing with international donors doing their best to provide Ukraine with everything it needs, but for the development of new power generation, "which should be measured, obviously, in gigawatts of installed capacity," Ukraine should create conditions for private businesses to build new small-capacity power plants en masse.

At the same time, Kudritsky noted that, in particular, the Ukraine Recovery Conference scheduled for June 11-12 in Berlin should be a good platform "to talk to investors from different countries, including Ukraine, about such opportunities."

He said he hopes that it will be possible to launch some of the small generating facilities by the start of the heating season.

"Of course, in this situation it is quite difficult to do this in just a matter of days or weeks," he said.