Ukrenergo’s contribution to the development of educational initiatives in 2022-2025 amounted to over UAH 65 million, the system operator announced on its Telegram channel on Monday.
“Our company actively cooperates with many higher and pre-higher education institutions. In particular, these are the Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute, Dnipro and Lviv Polytechnic Institutes, Vinnytsia National Technical University, and Kharkiv National Technical University of Municipal Economy named after O. Beketov,” the company said.
Together with these and other universities, Ukrenergo is improving its training programs for energy specialists in various fields and provides university teachers with opportunities for practical training at production facilities and in the company’s training center.
Ukrenergo also has an internship and employment program for senior students and graduates called Energy HUB.
“About 60% of participants in this program end up staying on to work full-time. Such initiatives help students start their careers immediately after graduation and help our company effectively build a qualified talent pool,” explained NEC.
Ukrenergo is among the largest business investors in Ukrainian education. The list of the top 51 companies that invest the most in education was compiled by Delo․ua and the Kyiv School of Economics.
The study took into account the volume of investments and educational initiatives of Ukrainian companies during 2022-2025. According to the organizers, this period was chosen for the ranking because investing in education during a full-scale war means believing in the future of both one’s own business and Ukraine as a whole.
On July 21, PJSC National Energy Company (NEC) Ukrenergo announced its intention to conclude a voluntary medical insurance agreement for its employees with the TAS insurance group (Kyiv). According to the Prozorro electronic public procurement system, SG TAS offered UAH 85.159 million against the expected cost of services of UAH 88.013 million. Another tender participant, SK VUSO, offered UAH 87.967 million.
As reported, the winner of a similar tender a year ago was also SG TAS, which offered UAH 58.793 million against almost the same expected cost.
Ukrenergo operates trunk and interstate power transmission lines and provides centralized dispatching of the country’s unified energy system. NEC is a state-owned enterprise under the authority of the Ministry of Energy and Coal Industry of Ukraine.
On July 8, PJSC National Energy Company (NEC) Ukrenergo announced a tender for voluntary medical insurance services for employees.
According to the Prozorro electronic public procurement system, the expected cost of the services is UAH 88.013 million. Applications for participation will be accepted until July 16. As reported, the winner of a similar tender a year earlier was SD TAS. The company’s price offer at that time was UAH 58.793 million, which was almost the same as the expected cost. Ukrenergo operates trunk and interstate power lines and provides centralized dispatching of the country’s unified energy system. NEC is a state-owned enterprise under the authority of the Ministry of Energy and Coal Industry of Ukraine.
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.
