INTEGRATION WITH EUROPE WILL INCREASE LIQUIDITY AND TRANSPARENCY IN THE UKRAINIAN ELECTRICITY MARKET AND ENSURE OPERATIONAL SECURITY AS WELL

In order to increase transparency and liquidity in the Ukrainian electricity market and ensure operational security as well, it is extremely important to couple the Ukrainian organized segments of the electricity market - the day-ahead market, intraday market and balancing market - with the relevant markets of the European countries.

The representatives of Ukrainian energy companies and industry experts have reached that conclusion during the presentation of the rules for electricity trading after the day-ahead, intraday and balancing markets are merged with the global European market, made by JSC Market Operator and NPC Ukrenergo.

Svitlana Hrynchuk, Deputy Minister of Energy of Ukraine, emphasized that Regulation (EU) 2023/56 (CBAM) on carbon border adjustment is an additional incentive for the fastest possible coupling of the Ukrainian and European spot markets. "CBAM will come into full force on January 1, 2026. However, the existence of market coupling is one of the prerequisites for obtaining a deferral from the application of the carbon border adjustment for imported electricity to the European Union. Due to our export potential, the issue of obtaining a deferral is a cornerstone not only for Ukraine's energy sector, but also for the economy itself," Svitlana Hrynchuk said.

Oleksandr Stremoukh, Market Operations Director of NPC Ukrenergo, introduced the participants with the peculiarities of balancing market integration, told about the expected outcomes from the ross-border balancing implementation, in particular, marginal pricing for balancing electricity, European balancing platforms, as well as the transition to 15-minute imbalance settlement periods.

Oleksandr Smilenko, Head of the Regulatory Support and Control Division of the Department of Scientific and Technical Development and Regulatory Support of the Market Operations Directorate of NPC Ukrenergo, told the electricity market participants about regional cooperation expansion between transmission system operators and the role of Regional Coordination Centers, the capacity calculation region and the region of power systems operation, as well as TSO functions within market coupling

Deputy CEO of the JSC Market Operator Daniil Petrenko familiarized the Ukrainian companies’ representatives with the regulatory framework that is the basis for market coupling, the powers and rights of ACER, the European Union Agency for the Cooperation of Energy Regulators. The Deputy CEO of JSC Market Operator was also talking about how market coupling emerged in the EU, what benefits Ukraine will receive after the coupling of organized market segments, and has also emphasized the problematic issues to be resolved.

Andrii Chaichevskyi, Deputy CEO on Trading Issues of Market Operator JSC told about the pricing differences on the Ukrainian and European day-ahead markets, presented the types of orders that exist in Europe and are implemented by the Ukrainian Market Operator, the day-ahead and intraday markets algorithms, etc.