The NEURC is preparing to revise electricity price caps: what will change for the market
4 April 06:55
The National Commission for State Regulation of Energy and Public Utilities will consider the issue of initiating a review of electricity price caps, or so-called price caps, at its meeting on April 7, 2026. According to the regulator’s press service, this decision is necessary to stabilize the power grid following the challenging 2025–2026 heating season and is driven by power shortages during certain periods, reports "Komersant Ukrainian"
The regulator explains that the issue of revision arose following the challenging 2025–2026 heating season and against the backdrop of energy balance problems.
Among the reasons cited by the NEURC are power shortages during certain periods, a significant volume of scheduled and unscheduled repairs to generation facilities, the termination of certain mechanisms for special gas obligations for electricity producers, and a substantial reduction in imports following the completion of relevant obligations for businesses.
What Are Electricity Price Caps
Price caps are the maximum prices within which electricity can be traded in specific market segments, including the day-ahead market (DAM), the intraday market (IDM), and the balancing market. Currently, the system operates within the limits approved by the NEURC on January 16, 2026. At that time, the regulator set, in particular, a maximum price cap for the DAM and IDM during peak hours (5:00 PM–11:00 PM) at 15,000 UAH/MWh, and for the balancing market at up to 16,000 UAH/MWh.
At the same time, the NEURC itself emphasized separately on April 4 that no additional decisions regarding changes to the current price caps have yet been adopted, and the market continues to operate within the already established price limits.
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Why the NEURC has revisited the issue
The regulator’s main argument is that, following a harsh winter, the power system requires more flexible market conditions. In its statement, the NEURC notes that a significant portion of generation capacity is undergoing repairs, and some gas-fired power plants have lost the economic incentives to operate following the termination of certain special obligation mechanisms.
Separately, the regulator mentions a reduction in electricity imports due to the end of businesses’ obligations to import resources for their own needs and due to price differences with neighboring countries.
Why, at the same time, are they saying that prices are not hitting the limits?
At first glance, there is a contradiction in the situation: NEURC simultaneously speaks of the need to revise price caps and of the fact that actual prices mostly do not reach the limit values. But this is precisely part of the current market picture. The regulator reported that as of April 1, 2026, in the “day-ahead” market, prices do not reach the established limits during most hours of the day; during the first four days of the month, price caps were recorded in only 9% of settlement periods, and as of April 4—in none at all.
This means that the problem is not the market hitting the price ceiling on a daily basis, but rather that the current price cap system may not fully correspond to the changed conditions of demand, supply, imports, and generation operations. In other words, the regulator is looking not only at the current price over a few days, but at the broader system balance following the heating season.
What happened with price caps in the past
In January 2026, the NEURC had already temporarily raised price caps in the electricity market due to shortages and winter risks. It was then that the maximum cap on RDN and VDR during peak evening hours was raised to 15,000 UAH/MWh.
Will this affect residential consumers
The NEURC’s statement refers to price caps in the wholesale market segments, not to a direct increase in tariffs for the public. Therefore, it is incorrect to interpret a potential revision of price caps as an automatic increase in bills for residential consumers.
However, any changes in the wholesale market could, in the long term, affect the economy of the power system, imports, power generation operations, and the financial condition of market participants.
What’s Next
The NEURC meeting, at which the issue of revising price caps is to be considered, is scheduled for April 7, 2026. The regulator separately emphasizes that the revision will take into account the comments of market participants in order to strike a balance between the interests of producers and consumers and maintain the stability of the power system.
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