TIU Canada (Ekotechnik Nikopol) dismantled the equipment of its solar power plant in Nikopol due to an unresolved conflict with Nikopol Ferroalloy Plant (NFP), according to a material on the Voice of America website.
According to Michael Yurkovich, CEO of TIU Canada, after the solar power plant was disconnected from the power grid in March 2020, followed by its downtime and a number of negative court decisions, the owners of NFP offered to sell the plant to them for a pittance, after which it was decided to dismantle it.
“This situation is not unique for the last two years in this country. The governments of the world, other overseas investors, people in the diaspora must admit that this situation does not only affect TIU – it affects many businesses and is getting worse, and we no longer want to play this game,” he said.
As reported, on March 2, 2020, NFP completely disconnected a 10.5 MW solar power plant from Ekotechnik Nikopol LLC (TIU Canada) from the power grid. TIU Canada noted that NFP took advantage of the fact that the SPP was connected to a substation located on its territory, and explained the need for shutdown by repair work.
TIU Canada has been operating in Ukraine since 2016. The company put into operation a 10.5 MW SPP in Nikopol in January 2018, and an 11 MW SPP in Mykolaiv region in April 2019. In addition, TIU Canada launched a 33 MW SPP in Odesa region. The company’s investments in solar energy, which became the first investor in Ukraine under the Canada-Ukraine Free Trade Area Agreement (CUFTA), amounted to over $65 million.
Nikopol Ferroalloy Plant is controlled by EastOne Group, established in autumn 2007 as a result of restructuring of Interpipe Group, and Privat Group, both based in Dnipro.
The negative court decision in favor of Nikopol Ferroalloy Plant (NFP) in the case of disconnecting the enterprise from the TIU Canada solar power plant (SPP) in Nikopol will create an extremely dangerous precedent in Ukraine and will actually allow unjustified disconnection of consumers and electricity producers from the grid, says Kateryna Tsvetkova, attorney at law of GOLAV, representing interests of Ekotechnik Nikopol LLC (TIU Canada).
“Therefore, the attention of the entire world community is now riveted to this case, and it is extremely critical for investments in the Ukrainian energy sector,” Tsvetkova said at a press conference at Interfax-Ukraine on Wednesday.
The TIU Canada power plant shutdown case will be heard at the Northern Economic Court of Appeal on October 4.
As reported, on March 2, 2020, NFP completely disconnected a 10.5 MW solar power plant from Ekotechnik Nikopol LLC (TIU Canada) from the power grid. TIU Canada noted that NFP took advantage of the fact that the SPP was connected to a substation located on its territory, and explained the need for shutdown by repair work.
As a result, Ekotekhnik Nikopol LLC (TIU Canada) filed a lawsuit against NFP, Ukrenergo and DTEK Dnipro Grids with Kyiv Economic Court, which, in turn, in January 2021 rejected the company’s claims to the three listed defendants. In response to the court’s decision, Ekotechnik Nikopol filed a complaint with the Northern Commercial Court of Appeal, which opened the relevant appellate proceedings in March 2021.
A court session to consider the case took place on July 26, however, a break was announced in the session due to the absence of NFP representatives. At the same time, the retrial on the “Nikopol case” on September 8 was also postponed to October 4 due to the filing by NFP of an appeal to the Northern Commercial Court of Appeal against the January decision of Kyiv Economic Court, which NFP had previously supported.
In its appeal, NFP believes that the claim of Ekotechnik Nikopol against Ukrenergo as part of the consideration of the case in Kyiv Economic Court was piecemeal and did not contain specific claims against the company, and for this reason the case should have been considered by the Economic Court of Dnipropetrovsk region.
In turn, as noted by attorney at law of GOLAV Kateryna Manoilenko, disconnecting a subject from access to the power grid requires a certain procedure and in the case of the shutdown of the TIU Canada solar power plant in Nikopol, Nikopol Ferroalloy Plant, according to the law, had to obtain preliminary appropriate permits from Ukrenergo and DTEK Dnipro Grids.
“In this case, Ukrenergo is the operator of the transmission system. Namely, Ukrenergo should have granted or not granted permission to disconnect the Canadian investor from the grid,” Manoilenko said, calling the actions of Ekotekhnik Nikopol to determine the three defendants in the person of NFP, Ukrenergo and DTEK Dnipro Grids quite reasonable and eligible.
“The case should have been considered, and it was considered by Kyiv Economic Court. The Canadian investor believes that there are three participants – this is the main defendant – the one that carried out the illegal disconnection – NFP – as well as two others that did not take any action to protect the rights of the Canadian investor,” the attorney said.
In addition, according to Tsvetkova, NFP, when filing an appeal to the Northern Economic Court of Appeal on September 7, exceeded the 20-day deadline for filing an appeal by a participant in the case established by procedural legislation from the moment the text of the court decision was received.
“In this case, the terms of the appeal, according to the Procedural Code, ended on February 28, 2021,” Tsvetkova said.
At the same time, NFP argued for the delay in filing an appeal with the allegedly limited budget for the payment of the court fee, as well as difficulties with legal support of court cases.
At the same time, according to the annual report of PrJSC Nikopol Ferroalloy Plant for 2020, the company received UAH 456 million in net profit.
“We believe that filing such an appeal is nothing more than a delay in the consideration of the case and an abuse of one’s procedural rights,” the attorney says.
However, the Northern Economic Court of Appeal announced on September 8 that it was accepting the NFP’s complaint to the appeal proceedings.
“In connection with such a rather controversial decision of the court, we challenged this panel of judges,” Tsvetkova said.
TIU Canada has been operating in Ukraine since 2016. The company put into operation a 10.5 MW SPP in Nikopol in January 2018, an 11 MW SPP in Mykolaiv region in April 2019. In addition, TIU Canada launched a 33 MW SPP in Odesa region. The company’s investments in solar energy, which became the first investor in Ukraine under the Canada-Ukraine Free Trade Area Agreement (CUFTA), amounted to over $65 million.
Nikopol Ferroalloy Plant is controlled by EastOne Group, established in autumn 2007 as a result of restructuring of Interpipe Group, and Privat Group, both based in Dnipro.
TIU Canada, a major foreign investor in Ukrainian solar energy, returns to court tomorrw seeking reconnection of its Nikopol solar station. The case will be heard by the Kyiv Northern Appellate Commercial Court at 11:00 PM, September 8, 2021. A three judge panel consists of the presiding Judge A.G. Maydaneevych, B.O. Tkachenko and O.M, Gavryliuk will hear the case number is 910/3844/20. The address is courtroom #7, 1a Sholudenka Street in Kyiv.
TIU Canada, the plaintiff in the case, was illegally disconnected from the electricity grid on March 2, 2020, by the Nikopol Ferroalloy Plant (NFZ) whose ultimate beneficial shareholders are Igor Kolomoyskyi, Gennadiy Bogolyubov, and Viktor Pinchuk. The case can be viewed online at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TnljwMv_fuE
TIU Canada is a leading Canadian-based solar energy producer, which has been working in Ukraine since 2016, and is a leading solar energy producer. The company commissioned a 10.5 megawatt solar power plant in Nikopol, Ukraine, in January 2018, and an 11.3 megawatt solar station in the Mykolayiv region in April 2019. An additional 33 megawatts of solar power generation has been commissioned in the Odesa region, for a total of 56 megawatts nationwide. TIU Canada has invested more than $65 million in Ukrainian solar energy over the last four years and was the first investor in Ukraine under the Canadian Ukrainian Free Trade Agreement (CUFTA).
The government of Ukraine is dealing with the problem of a solar power plant of Ekotekhnik Nikopol LLC belonged to the Canadian investor TIU Canada disconnected from the grid and proposes to solve it by connecting the solar power plant to another point, First Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Economy Oleksiy Liubchenko has said.
“Supposedly, everything should be formally resolved at the judicial level, but we posed the question in a different way: to find an opportunity to connect to another point. Specialists are now working it out,” he said in an interview with Interfax-Ukraine.
According to Liubchenko, the rules of the National Energy and Utilities Regulatory Commission of Ukraine (NEURC) and other regulations should be configured in such a way that “no one would even have a thought to violate them.”
“And a private owner will cope better than the state. But the state can also take responsibility for the regional power suppliers’ work as an owner, especially when it comes to threats to national security,” he said.
As reported, the 10.5 MW power plant of TIU Canada was disconnected by the Nikopol Ferroalloy Plant (NFP) from the power grid of on March 2, 2020. TIU Canada said that NFP took advantage of the fact that the plant was connected to a substation located on its territory, and explained the need for shutdown by repair work. The shutdown caused the company in excess of EUR 1.5 million in losses, which continue to grow. TIU Canada challenged these actions in courts, but lost the lower court hearings, and the legal dispute dragged on.
Date: June 23, 2021
Contact: Ivan Bachynsky +380-93-064-8292 ivan@tiucanada.com.ua
(Kyiv, Ukraine) – TIU Canada, a major foreign investor in Ukrainian solar energy, returns to court today seeking reconnection of its Nikopol solar station. The case will be heard by the Kyiv Northern Appellate Commercial Court at 11:30, June 23, 2021. A three judge panel consists of the presiding Judge A.G. Maydaneevych, O.M. Kovtun and O.M. Gavruliuk will hear the case number is 910/3844/20. The address is courtroom #7, 1a Sholudenka Street in Kyiv.
TIU Canada, the plaintiff in the case, was illegally disconnected from the electricity grid on March 2, 2020, by the Nikopol Ferroalloy Plant (NFZ) whose ultimate beneficial shareholders are Igor Kolomoyskyi, Gennadiy Bogolyubov, and Viktor Pinchuk. The case can be viewed online at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TnljwMv_fuE
TIU Canada is a leading Canadian-based solar energy producer, which has been working in Ukraine since 2016, and is a leading solar energy producer. The company commissioned a 10.5 megawatt solar power plant in Nikopol, Ukraine, in January 2018, and an 11.3 megawatt solar station in the Mykolayiv region in April 2019. An additional 33 megawatts of solar power generation has been commissioned in the Odesa region, for a total of 56 megawatts nationwide. TIU Canada has invested more than $65 million in Ukrainian solar energy over the last four years and was the first investor in Ukraine under the Canadian Ukrainian Free Trade Agreement (CUFTA).
Judges of the Pivdenny Economic Court of Appeal Vitaliy Korsak, Olha Popikova and Oleksiy Yevsikov, appointed to consider the case on the illegal disconnection of the solar power plant of Nikopol Ekoteknik (TIU Canada) by of the Nikopol Ferroalloy Plant, rejected themselves, the Canadian company said in a press release.
As TIU Canada recalled, the company had previously filed a motion to dismiss Korsak, Popikova and Yevsikov from the hearing the case “because of warnings about the connection between the latter and oligarch Ihor Kolomoisky, who is included in the list of persons subject to U.S. government sanctions.”
Although the lawyers’ claim was not satisfied, the judges voluntarily announced their withdrawal from the case. This means that other judges will be appointed and a new date for the hearing will be scheduled, the company said in the press release.
Today, the company got a small victory in a big war. TIU Canada will continue its fight for justice in accordance with the law, TIU Canada President Michael Yurkovich said.
