The Ministry of Economy and Finance of France has allocated a grant of EUR 560,000 to Ukraine to finance a joint project of Ukrenergo and RTE International for the implementation of Ukraine’s first energy storage system, the press service of the Ukrainian company has reported. According to its data, in the next six months, RTE International plans to implement the first phase of the project: a feasibility study and technical assignments for further work. At the second stage, the possible cost will be determined, a model of the future storage system and a roadmap will be created with a list of all necessary measures for the implementation of the joint project.
Ukrenergo notes that the project is of a great importance for the future development of the Ukrainian energy sector and the integration of the domestic energy system into the energy system of continental Europe, since one of the requirements is to ensure the required amount of primary frequency control.
In addition, over the past few years, there has been an increase in wind and solar power generation in Ukraine, which will require the construction of additional highly maneuverable capacities that meet the environmental requirements of European countries.
“The start of cooperation with RTE, the leading player in the European market, the implementation of a complicated and innovative energy storage project is a significant step towards our European integration and the strengthening of Ukraine’s energy security,” Ukrenergo Head Vsevolod Kovalchuk said.
National Energy Company Ukrenergo in 2018 sold property for the amount of UAH 170 million at open auctions in the ProZorro e-procurement system. “Everything that was written off and accumulated in electric power systems for years, from car tires and used transformer oil to large-sized scrap metal, equipment and old cars, is put up for sale,” the company said.
The received funds in the amount of UAH 113 million in 2018 were sent, in particular, to the reconstruction of the 330 kV Kremenchuk substation, the installation of a group of single-phase transformers at the 400 kV Mukachevo substation and the reconstruction of a number of 330 kV transmission lines with the replacement of a ground wire.
In addition, Ukrenergo held 2,400 tenders in the ProZorro system with the expected cost of purchases of more than UAH 4 billion. According to the company’s calculations, the savings on the concluded contracts compared to the expected price amounted to almost UAH 200 million.
As Director of Supply Chain Management at Ukrenergo Maryna Bezrukova said, the company has developed its own methodology for predicting the cost of goods, labor and services based on the price reference book. “In European companies, the indicator of effective procurement planning ranges from 5% to 15% of savings. Ukrenergo has already reached this level,” Bezrukova said.
Ukrenergo on February 4 will disclose tender proposals submitted for the tender to purchase hardware for the balancing electricity market, which is launched from July 2019.
According to the company’s website, the launch of a new model of the wholesale electricity market with a division into a number of segments (a balancing market, a day-ahead market, an intra-day market) is scheduled for the second half of 2019 in accordance with the law on the electricity market.
At the end of December 2018, Ukrenergo held a pre-tender meeting with potential participants. Currently, eight companies have acquired tender documentation, in particular, from Ukraine, the Czech Republic, Israel, and Switzerland.
Ukrenergo noted that the implementation of the project to introduce the balancing market is divided into two parts: the purchase of software and the purchase of hardware (Lot 3 “Telecommunications Infrastructure”) as part of the package UE/5 “Implementation of the Balancing Market”).
“Such a division is made in order to purchase software for the entire market platform without being tied to a limited range of hardware vendors. This allows one to purchase hardware at reasonable and competitive prices to deploy the entire market platform software according to its technical specifications,” the company said.
National Energy Company Ukrenergo has signed a contract with General Electric Grid Solutions (Germany) and Chornomorenergospetsmontazh LLC for reconstruction of Kharkivska and Zaliutyne 330 kV substations, the company’s press service has reported. According to the press service, the power equipment, cable communication lines, relay protection and automation devices will be replaced at the substations, new gas insulated 330 kV switchgears and hybrid 110 kV switchgears will be installed.
“Kharkivska and Zaliutyne substations play a significant role in providing power supply to the eastern region of Ukraine. With further integration into ENTSO-E, the importance of these substations will increase significantly. That is why the modernization of these facilities must be carried out at the highest technological level in compliance with all reliability and safety requirements presented by ENTSO-E,” Deputy Director for Investment at Ukrenergo Volodymyr Kudrytsky said.
The project entitled “Reconstruction of Substations in the Eastern Part of Ukraine” in 2019-2022, with funding from the German government, in addition to upgrading 330 kV Kharkivska substation and 330 kV Zaliutyne substation also provides for the reconstruction of 750 kV Zaporizhska substation and 750 kV Dniprovska substation.
CONTRACT, GENERAL ELECTRIC, RECONSTRUCTION, SUBSTATIONS, UKRENERGO
National energy company Ukrenergo and Moldelectrica have signed the operation agreement on the creation of a regulating unit as part of the power grids, which contains general technological aspects, provisions and technical conditions for ensuring synchronous operation of the Ukrainian and Moldovan power grids and fully meets the requirements and rules of the European Network of Transmission System Operators for Electricity (ENTSO- Е).
“The agreement regulates and ensures the synchronous operation of the power girds of Ukraine and Moldova, and in the future it will ensure the synchronous operation of the ENTSO-E power system of the continental Europe,” the company said, citing Ukrenergo’s Deputy CEO for Operational Management, Chief Dispatcher Vitaliy Zaichenko in the report.
According to him, the document approved all the required technological conditions in accordance with European rules and standards to regulate the frequency and power capacity within the power grids of Ukraine and Moldova.
Ukrenergo said that a procedure has also been developed for a quick amendment of the agreement required at the moment of the integration of power grids into ENTSO-E.
In addition, the parties agreed on a quarterly monitoring of the implementation of the agreement.
Ukrenergo operates trunk and interstate transmission lines, as well as centralized dispatching of the country’s integrated power grids. Ukrenergo is a state-owned enterprise under Ukraine’s Ministry of Energy and Coal Industry, but it will be transformed into a private joint-stock company soon.
National Energy Company Ukrenergo has announced the launch of test transaction on the sale and purchase of electricity on the balancing market and the auxiliary service market from December 11, 2018 in line with the terms outlined in the law on the electricity market.
“Please look: exactly on the day stipulated by law, we launched a platform to simulate trading on the balancing market in real time, a period of 15 minutes. Everything is real, only without payments among market players,” Ukrenergo CEO Vsevolod Kovalchuk said, commenting on this event on his page in the Facebook social network.
Ukrenergo said that the first training module was attended by more than 40 representatives of power generation companies, including the largest Ukrainian electricity producers: National Nuclear Generating Company Energoatom, DTEK Energo, Centrenergo, Ukrhydroenergo and Donbasenergo.
The company said in a press release that market players familiarized themselves with the principles of the test platform, the algorithms of operations in the balancing market and the market of auxiliary services in real time, the mechanisms of communication and interaction between market players and the system operator and other things.
“All potential players of the balancing market and the market of auxiliary services will receive logins and passwords (keys) for access to the test platform and will be able to independently test it. After that, we will meet with market players to discuss issues related to the operation of the test platform,” Ukrenergo Deputy Director for Market Development and IT Andriy Nemyrovsky said.
Kovalchuk called information manipulation the objections in his posting that the presented platform is a “dummy,” and not a real system in which the bidding will be carried out.
Nemyrovsky responded to criticism by publishing part of the results of test operations, according to which the price of the balancing market in the period from 18:00 on December 11 to 14:00 on December 12 fell to UAH 900 per 1 MWh and rose to UAH 2,140 per 1 MWh. However, it was mainly UAH 1,400–1,500 per 1 MWh with the wholesale market price approved by the National Commission for the State Regulation of Energy, Housing and Utilities Services (NCER) for the second – fourth quarter being UAH 1,586.69 per MWh.
