The Supervisory Board of NEC Ukrenergo has elected its chief dispatcher and board member Vitaliy Zaychenko as chairman of the board, according to Andriy Gerus, head of the Verkhovna Rada’s energy committee.
“Vitaliy Zaychenko has become the chairman of the board of Ukrenergo,” Gerus told the Energorforma internet portal on Monday.
The company has not yet officially announced the results of the Supervisory Board meeting, which was scheduled for Monday.
As reported, on June 13, the Ministry of Energy, as the sole shareholder of the company, made new amendments to the charter of NEC Ukrenergo. They allow for the appointment of the chairman of the company’s board of directors in several attempts, the last of which, the third, by a simple majority of the members of the supervisory board, and the first two by a qualified majority, i.e., at least five votes (there are seven members of the supervisory board, four of whom are independent). If the third attempt is also unsuccessful, the Supervisory Board shall decide to announce a new competition for the position of chairman of the management board. It must take place within 90 calendar days of the date of such decision.
The shortlist of candidates for the position of chairman of the board of Ukrenergo, based on the results of the competition announced on February 5, 2025, includes the acting head of the company, Alexei Brecht, its chief dispatcher and member of the board, Vitaly Zaychenko, and another representative of the company, Ivan Yurik, who deals with Eurobond issues.
Changes made by the Ministry of Energy to the charter of NEC Ukrenergo with a provision on a qualified majority of votes for the appointment of the chairman of the board, has provoked a sharp reaction from the company’s creditor, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, threatening the loss of access to a €141 million loan and grant, as well as early repayment of the €533 million already received, according to Maksym Khlapuk, a member of the Verkhovna Rada’s energy committee (Holos).
“The Ministry of Energy has pushed Ukrenergo into a real, not technical, default. The amendments to the company’s charter, which the Ministry of Energy introduced to strengthen its influence over it, have already hit the financial stability of the critical energy infrastructure operator. Yesterday, the EBRD, referring to the Ministry of Energy’s order on amendments to the charter, emphasized its right to suspend the disbursement of loan funds and demand early repayment of the loan already provided,” Khlapuk wrote on his Facebook page on Saturday, publishing an excerpt from the EBRD’s letter to Ukrenergo and the Ministry of Finance of Ukraine dated June 6.
It points to the company’s failure to notify the bank in a timely manner of any changes to the charter and to provide an opportunity to comment on them.
Referring to the terms of the loan agreements, the bank emphasizes its right to suspend disbursements and send appropriate notices of early repayment of loans in connection with changes to the charter.
“This situation threatens Ukrenergo not only with the loss of access to further EBRD financing in the amount of EUR 141 million (EUR 77 million of unutilized loan balance and EUR 64 million of expected grant), but also with the need for early repayment of funds already received in the amount of EUR 533 million,” emphasized a member of the Rada’s energy committee.
He also notes that the restructuring of Ukrenergo’s debt obligations to holders of green sustainable development bonds, for which the company planned to raise $430 million on international capital markets under the DFC guarantee, is now under threat.
“This debt management operation should have been completed in early July, but its success directly depends on the support of international financial institutions. And, according to my information, the DFC has currently suspended any actions related to the restructuring of green bonds,” Khlapuk emphasized.
As reported, on May 19, the Ministry of Energy amended the charters of LLC “OGTSU” and “Ukrenergo” with a provision on a qualified majority of votes of the Supervisory Board for the appointment of managers instead of a simple majority. This means that four out of five members of the supervisory board (three of whom are independent) must vote for the head of OGTSU, and five out of seven (four of whom are independent) must vote for the head of Ukrenergo.
As commented to EnergoReform by the head of the Association for Energy Efficiency and Energy Saving, former head of the Department for State-Owned Enterprises and Corporate Rights of the State Property Fund of Ukraine, Oleksandr Vizir, the Ministry of Energy, as a shareholder of Ukrenergo had the right to amend the company’s charter, and the provision on a qualified majority of votes is completely legal from a legal point of view. However, he drew attention to the way in which this was done. “For example, as far as I know, the amendments to the charter were not agreed with the supervisory board of Ukrenergo, nor with the company’s creditors, which is a condition of loan agreements in most cases,” Vizir explained in a comment. Vizir expressed his conviction that this would also delay the appointment of the chairman of Ukrenergo’s board, which should have taken place long ago, since the members of the supervisory board – representatives of the state and the Ministry of Energy, as the appointing body – can now effectively block the candidacy of independent representatives.
“According to my information, the independent members of the supervisory board and the shareholder have very different views on who should head Ukrenergo. And in fact, changes to the charter regarding the voting structure for appointing the head in the midst of the competition give grounds for concluding that the shareholder cannot agree with the candidates selected by the supervisory board,” Vizir believes.
In his opinion, the Ministry of Energy also had no right to submit the charter for registration or authorize anyone to do so; the charter should have been registered by the head of the company, Oleksiy Brecht, as acting chairman of the board, or by a person with a power of attorney from Ukrenergo.
According to Energorforma, the supervisory board of Ukrenergo was scheduled to meet on June 4, but was unable to elect a chairman of the board.
EnergoReforma’s interlocutors familiar with the situation also pointed out that the Ministry of Energy did not consult with the Energy Community Secretariat on changes to the statutes of Ukrenergo and OGTSU certified by it, which also caused its negative reaction. They noted that the issue of changes to the statutes of the operators is already known to European institutions and creditors, who have asked the Ministry of Energy for explanations, and assumed that a position will be expressed soon. In their opinion, the Ministry of Energy needs to communicate this issue very carefully with all stakeholders and provide very convincing arguments “or abandon the proposed changes in order to save the situation.”
For his part, Ukrainian Energy Minister Herman Galushchenko, during Question Time in the Verkhovna Rada on June 6, explained that the purpose of the changes to the statutes of OGTSU and Ukrenergo was to strengthen the position of company executives vis-à-vis the NR.
“I believe that these changes are actually aimed at something else: to ensure the maximum independence of the supervisory board and to ensure that the relevant managers and members of the management boards can work in order to protect them from dismissal or other decisions by a majority vote,” he said.
The new supervisory board of Ukrenergo, formed at the end of 2024, includes Yuriy Boyko, Anatoliy Guley, and Oleksiy Nikitin as representatives of the state, as well as independent members Patrick Greichen, Luigi De Francisci, Jan Montell, and Eppe Kofod, who heads the NR.
NR Ukrenergo announced a competition for the position of chairman of the board on February 5, 2025, with applications accepted until March 14 inclusive.
A shortlist of three candidates for the position of chairman of the board was formed in mid-April. It included the acting head of the company, Oleksiy Brecht, its chief dispatcher and member of the board, Vitaliy Zaychenko, and another representative of the company, Ivan Yurik, who deals with Eurobond issues.
In connection with the submission by OGTSU CEO Dmitry Lippa of a statement on the early termination of his powers, the company will be temporarily headed by a member of the management board, operations director Vladislav Medvedev, until the completion of the competitive selection process. The deadline for accepting applications from candidates for the position of the next head of OGTSU was March 31.
Slovakia is ready to allocate approximately EUR 84 million in loans and grants for the implementation of projects to restore and develop the infrastructure of NEC Ukrenergo.
The company announced this on Friday, citing investment director Oleg Pavlenko.
“In particular, we are talking about the construction of a new high-voltage line in a region that has been severely affected by Russian shelling, the construction of a new Ukrenergo substation, and the reconstruction of an existing one,” he said.
According to Pavlenko, the implementation of each of these initiatives is very important for the system operator, as these measures will significantly strengthen the stability of the Ukrainian energy system.
UkrEnergo executives discussed the implementation of joint projects and the possible participation of Slovak businesses in the restoration of Ukraine’s energy sector with representatives of the Slovak government. In particular, they discussed attracting infrastructure investments under the European program to support Ukraine, Ukraine Facility.
The implementation of projects to restore Ukraine’s energy infrastructure with the support of Slovak partners will be administered by the Export-Import Bank of the Slovak Republic and the Slovak Development Agency with the assistance of the country’s government.
Almost 30 applications have been submitted for the contest for the post of chairman of the board of the NEC Ukrenergo, the company’s acting head Oleksiy Brekht said.
“If I’m not mistaken, 28 applications have been submitted for the contest,” Brecht said in comments to Energoreforma after a briefing at the Energy Ministry on Wednesday.
He also confirmed that he too had applied for the contest. According to him, the tender will last for a few more weeks. As reported, the supervisory board of Ukrenergo announced a competition for the position of chairman of the board on February 5, applications were accepted until March 14 inclusive.
Over the past six months – from September 2024 to March 2025 – the debt of the state-owned enterprise Guaranteed Buyer (Guaranteed Buyer) to renewable energy producers operating at the feed-in tariff has decreased by 37.7% to UAH 22.3 billion from UAH 35.8 billion.
This was announced by Artem Nekrasov, Head of Guaranteed Buyer, at a meeting of the Energy Development League press club on March 27.
According to him, the state-owned enterprise’s settlements with renewable energy generation have increased to 93% since the beginning of 2025, compared to 86% last year. In turn, NPC Ukrenergo’s payments to Guaranteed Buyer for renewable energy services in 2025 increased to 85.2% from 72.9% in 2024.
“There are positive developments. For the first time in my memory, a weighted tariff for electricity transmission services (for Ukrenergo – IF-U) was approved for this year. In addition, we started signing contracts with Ukrenergo not in 1.5-2 years, as it used to be before, but, for example, the January contract has already been signed and payments have already been made,” the CEO said.
According to Nekrasov, the development of the renewable energy market largely depends on the repayment of debts that have historically been accumulated after 2020.
He recalled that in 2020, the government and investors in renewable energy signed a memorandum in which the state confirmed payment guarantees. In particular, the government decided to add an additional part of the funds to the system operator’s tariff, which the state will compensate from the state budget. However, every year, when adopting the state budget, MPs exclude this provision from consideration, which has resulted in the NPC’s tariff remaining underfunded for several years, and Guaranteed Buyer’s debts to market participants are equal to Ukrenergo’s debts to Guaranteed Buyer.
Nekrasov said that Guaranteed Buyer will continue its activities to resolve the debt problem, for which a special roadmap will be developed in a dialogue with market participants.
“Regarding the debts of previous periods, it should be understood that no one in a country at war will immediately raise UAH 15-20 billion to repay them. However, a memorandum or a roadmap for debt repayment will be developed at the level of renewable energy companies, Guaranteed Buyer, Ukrenergo, the Ministry of Energy and the National Energy and Utilities Regulatory Commission, which establishes the sources of payments,” the Chairman summarized. According to him, such a map will include reasonable repayment periods and clear sources of funding.
In turn, the positive dynamics in Guaranteed Buyer’s settlements with market participants was also confirmed at the meeting by the heads of specialized associations and owners of renewable energy installations.
“The development of solar energy is facilitated by the gradual reduction of debt to renewable energy sources, as well as the fact that solar equipment can be installed quite quickly and in many cases does not require special permits,” said Vladyslav Sokolovskyi, Chairman of the Board of the Solar Energy Association of Ukraine.
For his part, Andriy Konechenkov, Chairman of the Board of the Ukrainian Wind Energy Association, said that wind energy will receive a new wave of development in 2025, which will yield qualitative results in 2026-2027.
“Currently, six wind farms are under construction in different regions of Ukraine,” he added.
The event was supported by the information and analytical center Experts Club.
EXPERTS CLUB, Guaranteed Buyer, RENEWABLES, UKRENERGO, ГОЛІЗДРА, Некрасов
The Supervisory Board of NPC Ukrenergo has announced a competition for the position of the company’s Chairman of the Board, the company said.
“Korn Ferry, one of the best global consulting companies in the search for top managers and leadership development, will accompany the competition,” the company said in a statement on Telegram on Wednesday.
According to the terms of the competition, applications are accepted until March 14, 2025.
To participate, applicants must provide a package of documents in Ukrainian and English, which must include a resume, two written letters of recommendation, a motivation letter, and consent to the processing of personal data.
According to the terms of the competition, in order to meet the shareholder’s expectations, the chairman of the board must have the following priorities and strategic goals for the period of war: to ensure the protection of critical elements of the power system and the rapid restoration of damaged power facilities; support the development of distributed generation; create a reserve of critical equipment and ensure its safe storage; restore financial stability and the trust of international financial partners, as well as increase the network capacity by
In addition, he should create the preconditions for the post-war development of the company by achieving a number of goals, including: developing a long-term corporate strategy for Ukrenergo, taking into account the expectations of shareholders; managing the restoration and modernization of the energy infrastructure, including in-depth digitalization of the grid and support for market-based decarbonization of the power system. The Chairman of the Board, in particular, should ensure: energy sustainability and strengthen the security of the grid, in particular through modern technical solutions, development of IT systems and organizational capacity of the NPC; organize effective work with stakeholders to improve the regulatory framework and energy diplomacy with ENTSO-E partner countries.
The Chairman of the Board should also ensure financial stability by optimizing costs and increasing business efficiency, enhancing access to capital markets and expanding cooperation with international financial organizations.
