Distributed stability: how small and large “energy islands” are changing Ukraine’s energy system
26 December 2025 14:56
In 2025, Ukrainian cities and towns continued to develop distributed generation, which is already providing and will continue to provide stable energy supply to consumers. How successfully and where exactly this is being done – found out
There are many “energy islands” on the energy map of Ukraine. Different ones – large and small, with a plus sign, which have the ability to provide themselves with electricity more or less autonomously, and with a minus sign, where there are problems with such provision. Odesa’s power system can probably be classified as the latter. There, enemy attacks on power company substations, which complicate the transmission of electricity, as well as the insufficiency of local generation, have led to long-term problems with power supply and the declaration of a state emergency.
According to experts, the prospect of becoming similar “energy islands” for the same reasons hangs over two other large cities on the Left Bank of Ukraine – Dnipro and Kyiv. Instead, there are sufficient grounds to talk about Kharkiv as an “energy island” that can ensure the stability of electricity supply.
Kharkiv’s energy independence
It became known in mid-2024 that Kharkiv was implementing the first project in Ukraine to create a decentralized life support system and that the so-called “energy island” would appear in the regional center as a result of its implementation.
As Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov explained, this will help the city get rid of its dependence on centralized systems and even allow it to adjust tariffs. In December of this year, the Kharkiv mayor thanked French partners and personally the French Ambassador to Ukraine, Gael Veyer, for supplying equipment critical to joint projects in the energy and water sectors.
Stanislav Ihnatiev, Associate Expert of the Ukrainian Institute for the Future, Doctor of Technical Sciences, speaking about the functioning of Kharkiv as an “energy island” in an interview with
“What makes this island work? For example, gas piston plants, which were installed both at the expense of the international technical assistance program (grants) and at our own expense, help. For example, last year, the city council held 2.2 billion hryvnias worth of tenders for such gas piston units for water utilities alone,” the expert notes.
The development of the Kharkiv “energy island” will continue next year.
“This project has already proven its effectiveness. We will continue to develop the energy island, because its effectiveness has been proven by life, and Kharkiv residents see it,” the mayor of Kharkiv emphasized during a national telethon.
After the enemy shelling of power facilities on December 24, Ihor Terekhov said that where technically possible, the city was forced to switch to the “energy island” mode to reduce the consequences for the citizens.
Funds for the development of Kharkiv’s “energy island” have already been allocated in the city budget.
From centralization to decentralization
Centralization is a Soviet legacy of the Ukrainian energy system. The basis of generation was and still is large power facilities – nuclear, thermal and hydroelectric power plants. However, the attacks of recent years have shown the vulnerability of this model. The direction of change is obvious: the transition to a distributed and autonomous system, where generation sources are as close to the consumer as possible.
Dariia Orlova, electricity market analyst at ExPro agency, explains:
“An energy island is a small part of a large power system that can operate autonomously if necessary. It is important to have a sufficient number of generation facilities (for example, gas plants). They do not operate in isolation all the time, but they have the ability to do so if there are problems in the United Energy System of Ukraine.”
Yuriy Kasich, CEO of Vinnytsiaoblenergo, in an interview with the radio company “City on the Bug”, also recently spoke about the peculiarities of energy islands.
“An energy island is actually a very small energy system that must have mandatory components – on the one hand, a consumer and, on the other hand, a producer, i.e. power plants. And it can operate in isolation from another large energy system. But in normal mode, the island works synchronously with a large energy association, that is, as part of the United Energy System of Ukraine,” the official explained.
According to him, recently there has been talk of creating “energy islands” around small power plants. The advantage of this approach is that small power plants cannot be damaged at the same time. According to Yuriy Kasich, the future belongs to the energy system in the form of a huge energy island consisting of thousands of smaller islands, and these islands should work in parallel with others, and if necessary, be self-sufficient.
Energy state of thousands of islands
There are already many self-sufficient “energy islands” in Ukraine, varying in size and capacity.
At least, if we assume that unofficial island status can be claimed, for example, by enterprises and institutions that have equipped the roofs of their buildings with solar panels or installed a cogeneration unit next to them that can simultaneously produce both electricity and heat. If there are more installations, there are more opportunities.
Stanislav Ignatiev, Doctor of Technical Sciences, in an interview with
“This is a district heating company that builds its own power grid and provides boiler houses with its own power supply. That is, even during a blackout, it can operate in the mode of a thermal energy island,” the expert emphasizes.
Although there is an important clarification. As Vasyl Novachok, Deputy Mayor, once told in an interview with EP, the city began working on an autonomous power supply long before the full-scale invasion.
“At first, we installed twelve generators and did not plan to install more because there was no need. When the big war started and there were problems with electricity, we started delivering additional generators,” said Vasyl Novachok.
Cherkasy has a similar experience. Speaking recently in the studio of the Vycherpno media outlet, Pavlo Karas, head of the Cherkasyteplocomunenergo utility company, said that the city has built a multi-level blackout protection system and created its own power generation.
In addition, the number of water utilities in Ukraine that install backup power sources, including renewable energy installations, is growing to ensure stable water supply in the face of regular power outages.
The National Energy and Utilities Regulatory Commission (NEURC) boasted of this.
An article posted on the website of the Association of European Water Regulators states that the use of alternative energy sources allows Ukrainian water utilities not only to increase their resilience to emergencies, but also to gradually move to an energy-independent management model. To get a sense of the scale of the changes, we can also cite the latest data from the Ministry of Community and Territorial Development, which called this year “a turning point in the development of distributed generation.”
The agency reported that since the beginning of 2025, international partners have transferred 962 units of distributed generation equipment to Ukraine – 566 cogeneration units, 368 modular boiler houses, and 28 gas turbine units.
As a result, more than 450 MW of generating capacity was added to the power system.
And finally, for the sake of completeness, here is information from Andriy Gerus, Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Energy.
He said that in 2025, in particular, more than 1000 MW of solar generation, about 500 MW of gas generation and about 500 MW of energy storage capacity will be built and commissioned.
And, according to him, about 70 substations have concrete protection. Unfortunately, it is not reported how many substations did not have sufficient protection and were destroyed. Apparently, a lot, given the fact that blackouts in Ukrainian homes, unfortunately, are not getting shorter.
Author: Sergiy Vasilevich
