KYIV. Dec 8 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Head of national energy company Ukrenergo Vsevolod Kovalchuk at a meeting with representatives of international financial institutions (IFIs) in Kyiv on Tuesday discussed the creation of an independent supervisory board in the company and corporate management reform.
The press service of the state-run enterprise said that representatives of the World Bank, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), European Investment Bank, Germany’s bank KfW, top managers of the Secretariat of the Energy Community and representatives of U.S. and British embassies in Ukraine.
The sides also discussed the possibility of creating the strategic advisors group in Ukrenergo consisting of competent experts in the energy sector of the European Union (EU) and other developed countries. A new investment policy concept was also presented. The group is intended to have an independent professional assessment of the processes, first of all in the technical sphere of the company.
The company said that the creation of an independent supervisory board would help to quickly conduct required reforms and the company will meet European requirements to the systemic operators.
“After a recent approval of the procedure for creating supervisory boards by Ukraine’s Cabinet of Ministers we can start creating this body. I would like that Ukrenergo was the leader in the process among all state-owned enterprises. We would like to have an independent, transparent and effective supervisory board consisting of competent foreign managers with impeccable experience of work in foreign systemic operators and of course, representatives of the state,” Kovalchuk said.
The Ukrenergo head also said that the company will switch to the long-term development planning, in particular, for capital investment.
“European systemic operators are working under the ten-year plan, which is the legal and economic ground for drawing up two and three-year investment plans. They know for sure what and how to invest and which year. This is a positive and clear signal both for financial partners, investors and other market players. Everyone knows where the systemic operators are moving,” he said.
Kovalchuk announced a new portfolio of investment projects worth some EUR 1.5 billion. They aim at the complete automation of the power grid and modernization of existing substations. It would help to significantly reduce (up to five-seven years) the terms for the complete synchronization of the Ukrainian power grid with the European Network of Transmission System Operators for Electricity (ENTSO-E).
