Ukraine about to start electricity exports to CESA - Ukrenergo CEO
MOSCOW. June 28 (Interfax) - Ukraine will begin exporting electricity to the Continental Europe Synchronous Area (CESA) in a few days' time, Ukrenergo CEO Volodymyr Kudritskyi said on social media on Tuesday.
"ENTSO-E confirmed on June 27 that Ukrenergo together with the transmission system operators in neighboring countries successfully fulfilled six technical conditions to open the export of the first 100MW of electricity from Ukraine to Europe. Ukraine also may import the same amount of electricity from Europe if need be," the Ukrainian media quoted Kudritskyi as saying.
Ukrenergo will hold an open auction today to sell access to interstate transmission capacity, he said, adding that all electricity producers and other companies may take part in this auction.
"This decision smashes the aquarium of the closed Ukrainian electricity market once and for all, at the same time bringing us closer to full integration into the European energy space," he said.
As regards the speed of starting exports from a power grid which has just joined ENTSO-E, it is an unprecedentedly rapid decision, Kudritskyi said. Under the 2017 synchronization agreement, commercial exports from the Ukrainian power grid were supposed to begin in a year after trial synchronization. Ukraine, however, reached an agreement on opening commercial electricity exchanges within three months.
Kudritskyi also found a symbolic coincidence in the date when the ENTSO-E decision on Ukrainian exports was adopted.
"The same day five years ago, Ukrenergo and ENTSO-E signed a historic agreement thanks to which the Ukrainian energy system is synchronized with Europe's today. This treaty set out conditions for the future integration with the power grid of continental Europe, which was due to take place in 2023. But we have made it happen a year and a half earlier," Kudritskyi said.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian Energy Minister Herman Halushchenko said that the commercial exports of 100 MW of electricity from Ukraine to Europe would start on June 30.
"ENTSO-E has adopted a long-awaited decision on the official start of the commercial export of electricity from Ukraine to Europe from June 30, 2022. The initial amount of export is 100 MW, and this volume will be increased gradually following ENTSO-E's monthly evaluation of its impact on the European energy system," Halushchenko said on social media on Tuesday.
The Ukrainian power grid is technically able to provide up to 1,690 watt capacity for export, the Ukrainian media quoted him as saying.
"After additional technical measures are carried out, the throughput capacity for electricity sales to foreign countries may grow to 4-5 GW," Halushchenko said.
A gradual growth of electricity exports will help fund the stabilization of the financial state of the Ukrainian energy market, he said. European countries, in turn, will have an opportunity to ensure more stable energy supply and to replace Russian energy resources, he said.
All generating companies will have equal access to electricity exports thanks to transparent auctions, Halushchenko said.
Ukrenergo, for its part, has explained that electricity will first be exported to Romania, and will start to be delivered to Slovakia and Hungary in several days, but such exports will total 100 MW.
Ukraine began exporting electricity to Poland in March of this year, and to Moldova in May.