Third of EBRD's 150 mln euros for Ukrenergo to be used to pay for renewable energy generation

MOSCOW. Oct 9 (Interfax) - Nearly one-third of the 150 million euros the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is due to provide to Ukrenergo soon will be spent on paying for electricity generated by industrial solar farms, the company's CEO Vladimir Kudritsky said.

"The debts are expected to stop growing in October. It should happen not only because there will be less generation from renewable energy sources. It is highly likely that this effect will not be sufficient for now. But we expecting to receive 150 million euros from the EBRD in new financing of our liquidity. Some of this money will be used to pay off the debts to GarPok [Guaranteed Buyer]. I think it will be at least 50 million euros," Ukrainian media quoted Kudritsky as saying on Thursday at a meeting of the Verkhovna Rada energy committee, which he attended by video link.

Guaranteed Buyer head Artyom Nekrasov, who also attended the committee's meeting by videoconference, said, for his part, that debts to industrial renewable energy generation facilities grew by 16.1 billion hryvni in January-September 2023.

As reported, Kudritsky said in late September that Ukrenergo expected to receive 150 million euros from the EBRD over the coming weeks. The power grid operator will spend some of this money on repaying debts to market participants, he said then.

Prior to that, Kudritsky estimated market participants' debts to the Ukrenergo at 60 billion hryvni, saying that the company itself owed them approximately 50 billion hryvni. Kudritsky put these figures at 59 billion hryvni and 50 billion hryvni, respectively, as of August 17.

Kudritsky said at the Rada energy committee's meeting on October 5 that market participants' debts to Ukrenergo had declined by 1.2 billion hryvni and the company's debts had decreased by 1.8 billion hryvni, not counting debts on the balancing market, where persistent nonpayers can take electricity. Thus, debts to Ukrenergo on the balancing market stood at 29.1 billion hryvni as of early October (plus 1 billion hryvni in debts for September). Ukrenergo's debts to companies (thermal power plants, UkrHydroEnergo) that provide balancing services grew by 400 million hryvni to 17.1 billion hryvni.

The latest updates published on the GarPok website on September 18 put Ukrenergo's debt to industrial renewable energy generation facilities at 29.56 billion hryvni.