The European Union will be able to double the export of Ukrainian electricity this week, European Energy Commissioner Kadri Simson said at a press conference in Brussels on Tuesday after an informal meeting of EU energy ministers with their Ukrainian counterpart Herman Galushchenko on the sidelines extraordinary meeting of the EU Energy Council.
“If commercial electricity trading helps Ukraine offset some of the revenue losses, then this is the way forward. We are not waiting for any specific technical conditions to start trading. Trading is already underway,” she stated.
The European Commissioner recalled that the Ukrainian and Moldovan power transmission networks “were synchronized with the European one in record time.”
“I will continue to support the next step of a full-fledged electricity trade with Ukraine. The first commercial cross-border electricity exchange began at the end of June with Romania, and with Slovakia in July. At the moment, the trading capacity is 1,500 megawatts. But European transmission network operators meet on this week and will discuss doubling this amount,” Simson said.
In this regard, the European Commissioner opined that “by doing so, we will also be able to compensate for some of the production of capacities that here in the EU must be produced with gas, most likely gas from Russia.”
“These are mutually beneficial actions. But our cooperation in the future is not only electricity and gas, but you can expect that soon we will be ready to announce future cooperation in the field of clean gases, renewable gases. This is a market that will develop in Europe, and Ukraine has great opportunities to become our trading partner in the coming years,” she explained.
Simson also said that the EU-Ukraine High Level Energy Market Integration Panel will resume work in September, “accelerating the necessary reforms.” “This will be even more important, since Ukraine now has the status of an EU candidate with a clear European perspective,” the European Commissioner said.
In addition, she noted that Ukraine has the largest gas storage facilities in Europe. “And it’s in our joint interest to use them for security purposes,” Simson said.
For his part, Minister of Energy of Ukraine German Galushchenko noted that Ukraine has the ability to store more than 12 billion gas for European companies in its underground gas storage facilities “in fairly safe places.”
Galushchenko stressed that the Ukrainian gas transportation system could guarantee gas supplies at the level of those volumes that are transported to Europe through Nord Stream 1, “if the Russians close it.”
“Even during the war, we ensured the security of supplies of those volumes that go through the Ukrainian pipeline, and this was our obligation to our European partners. We are fulfilling this obligation,” the Minister of Energy stressed.
As for the export of Ukrainian electricity, according to him, today it is a direct replacement for Russian gas.
“Today we export 100 MW to Europe. But technically we could already increase it to 1.5-1.7 thousand MW, realizing that this can replace up to five to six billion cubic meters of Russian gas with Ukrainian electricity,” he said.
In addition, Galushchenko focused on the behavior of the Russian invaders at the site of the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant.
“What they are doing there is called nuclear terrorism. And therefore, we must be aware that in the 21st century, only one country can behave like a terrorist. And this is a matter of nuclear security. This is not only a matter between Ukraine and Russia, this is a question of the whole world,” the head of the Ministry of Energy stressed.
In the first 27 days of exporting electricity to the EU, NPC Ukrenergo earned over UAH 500 million from the sale of access to interstate power lines at cross-border sections with Romania and Slovakia, the company’s press service reported on Monday.
“This is the result of high competition at auctions for access to interstate power grids, which Ukrenergo conducts according to transparent European rules. From six to 13 participants participated in each of the auctions,” the report says.
It clarifies that in the direction of Romania there were ten or more companies in most auctions, and more than six in the direction of Slovakia, while in total more than 200 participants have already registered for participation in the auctions.
The company notes that the export of electricity to the EU countries allows the state and electricity producers to earn funds to prepare for the heating season: buy coal, finance repairs of power units of power plants and grids. In particular, at present, the company sells at auctions all available transmission capacity with Romania and Slovakia – 100 MW, which is in demand, since the price of electricity in the EU exceeds the Ukrainian one by several times.
The company’s income from access to interstate grids during the war can be used to settle the balancing market to give electricity producers an additional resource to prepare for winter. To this end, amendments to the law on the electricity market are expected.
According to Ukrenergo, the weighted average daily price of access to sections with Romania and Slovakia amounted to UAH 7,700 per MW over 24 days. At the same time, the highest weighted average price was at auctions for the delivery day on July 26 – UAH 14,600 per MW. At the same time, in previous years, such a record did not exceed UAH 3,000/MW.
In January-June 2022, Ukraine increased its revenue from electricity exports by 1.6 times (by $61.76 million) compared to the same period in 2021, to $169.998 million, according to the State Customs Service.
According to Interfax-Ukraine estimates, over six months electricity was supplied to Slovakia for $48.968 million, Poland for $46.649 million, Hungary for $40.408 million, and other countries for $33.973 million.
In June this year, electricity export revenue amounted to $18.579 million compared to $30.263 million in June 2021.
In addition, Ukraine in January-June 2022 imported electricity for $102.115 million versus $58.598 million for the same period last year. In particular, from Belarus for $100.414 million, Slovakia for $0.873 million, Romania for $0.491 million, and other countries for $0.337 million.
In June this year, Ukraine imported electricity for $0.001 million versus $1.943 million in June 2021.
Proceeds from sales of NPC Ukrenergo’s available interstate transmission capacity for electricity exports to Romania and Slovakia amounted to UAH 200.3 million since the opening on June 30.
These data are based on the results of the latest auctions in the Romanian and Slovak directions, held on July 10 with delivery on July 12. According to them, the section price to Slovakia was UAH 10.3 million and to Romania – UAH 10.2 million.
Traditionally, the most active participants in these auctions are DTEK Zakhidenergo, ERU Trading, and Le-Trading Ukraine.
At the same time, Energoatom began to participate in auctions for the export of electricity to Slovakia from the moment they started on July 5 for supplies on July 7 (two days before delivery). For the first time, the company bought almost 500 MWh of the possible 1200 MWh for export at the auction on July 9 with delivery on July 11. The plans for July 12 are to export 131 MWh.
At the same time, Ukrhydroenergo, which for the first time bought out a section to Slovakia for export of 148 MWh on July 9, and then for export of 110 MWh on July 10, ended the last two auctions with delivery on July 11 and 12 to no avail.
Auctions with delivery on July 10 became an anti-record at the cross-section price: for Slovakia, it fell on this day to UAH 11/MWh with delivery at 12-16:00, and the highest was UAH 2,390 /MWh at 23:00. For Romania, the lowest price was UAH 100/MWh at 13-14:00, the highest was a little over UAH 2,200/MWh with delivery at 21:00-23:00. For comparison: according to the results of all auctions, the price for Romania was the lowest on July 3 – UAH 1,380/MWh.
It is noteworthy that Ukrhydroenergo reserved most of its daily resource at the lowest prices in both directions.
In general, in both directions, the price of a section on July 10 amounted to a little more than UAH 2 million.
As of July 11, this figure was already ten times more – UAH 20.5 million.
The section from Slovakia and Romania for July 10-12, as before, was not reserved.
The section to Poland continues to be purchased at daily auctions in addition to the 147 MW capacity purchased at the monthly auction by DTEK Zakhidenergo – at 65 MW every hour (1,560 MWh per day) on July 10-12.
The daily cross-section to Moldova on July 10-12, according to the traditional scenario, was divided by Energoatom, which bought out a cross-section for export of 9,400 MWh per day, and Ukrhydroenergo – 2,400 MWh per day.
The section price at all auctions, except for exports to Romania, is UAH 0/MWh.
Over seven days of daily auctions by NPC Ukrenergo for distribution of access to a cross-section for exporting electricity to Romania, the price of a cross-section increased to UAH 106 million.
Including, according to the results of the auction on July 6, the seventh day after the opening of exports to Romania, 8 winners of the auction, who divided the daily cut, must pay a total of UAH 19.8 million.
The highest cross-section price at this auction was the price at 23:00 – UAH 10.9 thousand UAH/MWh, which was shared by DTEK Zakhidenergo (by 60 MWh), Latest Technologies 3000 (by 15 MWh). h), ERU Trading (by 14 MWh), Energoatom (by 10 MWh) and Smart Trade Energy (by 1 MWh). The absolute record of the week is still the price of 11.67 thousand UAH/MWh. At the same time, experts note that traders in many positions are ready to pay for a cross-section significantly higher than the selling price of a resource in Romania for these hours.
In general, this time, as in previous auctions, more than half of the daily capacity was bought by DTEK Zakhidenergo (for export, a total of 1,377 MWh out of a possible 2,400 MWh per day).
“Le Trading” Ukraine bought a section for export of 281 MWh, “ERU Trading” – for 220 MWh, “Energoatom” – for 239 MWh (yesterday it was only 30 MWh), “Latest Technologies 3000” – by 198 MWh, Nexttrade by 45 MWh, Smart Trade Energy by 24 MWh and DE Trading by 16 MWh.
Once again, the state-owned Ukrhydroenergo participated in the auction without results.
Also, Artlex-Energy and Ukr Gas Resource did not buy anything in this auction.
From Romania on July 6, the section was not reserved.
The section to Poland continues to be purchased at daily auctions in addition to the 147 MW capacity purchased at the monthly auction of DTEK Zakhidenergo – as of July 6, at 65 MW per hour (1560 MWh per day).
According to yesterday’s scenario, the daily cross-section to Moldova on July 6 was divided by Energoatom, which bought out a cross-section for export of 9400 MWh per day and Ukrhydroenergo – by 2400 MWh per day. Another 1 MW per hour (24 MWh in total) was bought by Energy Lab Ukraine, which had not previously participated in the auction.
The section price at all auctions, except for exports to Romania, is 0 UAH/MWh.
As reported, the import-export of electricity to Romania for 100 MW started on June 30. The number of auction winners varies from 5 to 9 participants.
On June 27, ENTSO-E agreed to start commercial exports of the first 100 MW to Europe. First, the resource will be supplied to Romania, then the directions to Slovakia and Hungary will be opened, but in general, the export capacity is 100 MW. In a month, Ukrenergo expects an increase in exports.
From June 30, Ukraine began exporting electricity to Romania at a capacity of 100 MW, Prime Minister of Ukraine Denys Shmygal announced.
“Today, from 1 a.m., such exports went towards Romania. The initial volume is 100 MW,” he wrote on his telegram channel on Thursday.
He noted that in the first day alone, the state-owned company Ukrenergo earned UAH 10 million by selling access to the interstate section for export, and potentially Ukraine could earn more than UAH 70 billion a year from this.
“The potential for the export of Ukrainian electricity to Europe is up to 2.5 GW. Under this scenario, the state will be able to receive more than UAH 70 billion a year,” Shmyhal said.
The prime minister stressed that the energy visa-free regime with the EU, which began in March this year, gives its very visible and practical result, and the energy sector will become one of the drivers for the recovery of the Ukrainian economy, as it has already become a driver for integration into the EU.
According to the data on the ENTSO-E website, physical exports from Ukraine to Romania are made on June 30 with a flat schedule of 100 MWh.
As reported, Ukrenergo earned more than UAH 10 million at the first auction for the sale of a section to Romania on June 30, and almost UAH 14 million at the second auction, on July 1. The section was divided respectively by 5 and 6 companies. A total of 8 and 10 companies participated in the auction, respectively.
Ukrainian and European energy systems have been operating synchronously since March 16. On June 27, Europe opened electricity exports from Ukraine, which was supposed to start on June 30.
