Instead of advertisements and illuminations – light for hospitals: how energy supply priorities will change
9 December 2025 21:23
The Ukrainian government has announced additional measures to stabilize the energy system, which is under unprecedented pressure due to Russia’s ongoing attacks on generation and network infrastructure. Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko announced the decisions, "Komersant Ukrainian" reports.
Revision of critical infrastructure lists
Regional military administrations have two days to update the list of critical infrastructure facilities. According to the government, this will allow redistributing part of the electricity in favor of household consumers.
The uninterrupted supply of electricity to hospitals, schools, life support systems and defense industry enterprises will remain unchanged. At the same time, facilities that do not require priority supply may be removed from the “privileged” lists.
Restrictions on decorative lighting and advertising
The second set of decisions concerns energy savings at the local level. Authorities and utility companies are to reduce consumption, primarily by lighting buildings, parks, garlands, and city advertising.
At the same time, the government emphasizes that dangerous road sections and streets with high accident rates will remain illuminated. The list of such areas is to be determined by the Ministry of Internal Affairs together with the National Police.
Launch of distributed generation
The Cabinet of Ministers also instructed to ensure maximum use of distributed generation – gas piston, gas turbine and other backup units. All technical obstacles preventing them from supplying electricity to the grid should be removed as soon as possible.
The government emphasizes that these sources can significantly reduce the deficit during peak load hours.
Permission to import electricity
Another step was the authorization of state-owned companies to import electricity, subject to the approval of Ukrenergo. Demand for such solutions has increased after a series of massive Russian strikes that limited domestic generation capacity.
Svyrydenko emphasized that imports should reduce the load on the power system and help stabilize the schedules of outages.
Russia intensified its attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure in the fall and early winter, trying to repeat the tactics of energy terror in 2022. This time, both generation facilities and transmission networks came under attack, causing significant blackouts for the population.
The government insists that new solutions should minimize the consequences of these attacks and ensure priority power supply for the most vulnerable consumers.
