Lessons from war: DTEK maps out Ukraine’s post-conflict energy transition

At the heart of Europe’s deepening energy crisis is Ukraine. As the country battles through a harsh winter riddled with blackouts and the relentless shelling of its energy infrastructure by Russian forces, throughout the war this year, Ukraine’s largest privately funded energy supplier, DTEK, has been extremely vocal about its fight to maintain grid capacity in various regions.

Speaking at a press conference on 13 October, DTEK CEO Maxim Timchenko warned of a likely lack of energy capacity during this winter due to heavily damaged grid connections. At the time, Timchenko said DTEK’s power stations were running at 30% capacity following a recent spate of attacks. “As of today,” he told international press, “we have enough generation capacity in Ukraine; the problem is how to bring this capacity from one region to another now the connections have been destroyed. We could find ourselves in the position of a capacity deficit if our power stations face more destruction.”