Dear EUEA members,

On February 8, 2021, an online/offline meeting of EUEA members was held. The agenda pf the meeting:

1. Discussion of the current situation in the RES sector.
2. The speech of Kostiantyn Gura acting Chairman of the State Agency on Energy Efficiency and Energy Saving of Ukraine.
3. The development of Hydrogen, discussion of the draft Hydrogen Development Roadmap.

The summary of the first part of the meeting on renewable energy:

Member of the EUEA Board, Managing Partner of IMEPOWER Yuriy Kubrushko informed, that Guaranteed Buyer made the final payment for renewable power plants for electricity supplied in December 2020. As a result, the level of payments to renewables for electricity supplied in August-December 2020 is 100%. The Guaranteed Buyer made the first payment of "old" debt to renewables. UAH 0.9 billion was transferred yesterday from the total debt of UAH 22.4 billion accumulated as of 1 August 2020. The funds originally came from the state-owned banks that signed loan agreements with the TSO (Ukrenergo) for a total amount of UAH 10.25 billion. The first tranche was split by the Guaranteed Buyer 50-50 between renewables and Energoatom (that also received UAH 0.9 billion as debt repayment).

• In turn, a representative of GURIS Loic Lerminiaux also outlined the difficult situation on the RES market in Ukraine and noted, that the situation with payments may worsen in the spring. He suggested two approaches on improving the situation: to sue only for partial compensation, not the full amount, but other conference participants say, that it’s too late to do this, and these steps are currently irrelevant. Another idea was to start discussing the prosecution of the director of the Guaranteed Buyer, but this idea also did not receive support from other participants at the meeting.
• Oleksandra Humeniuk announced the possibility of to hold a separate meeting of EUEA members with Acting Minister of Energy of Ukraine Yuriy Vitrenko. EUEA members discussed, that no proposals should be made during the meeting, but clear calculations should be provided on problematic issues in the renewable energy sector.

In the second part of the EUEA members meeting Kostiantyn Gura showed his presentation on the main activities of the State Agency on Energy Efficiency and Energy Saving of Ukraine and answered the questions from EUEA members. In particular, Kostiantyn Gura said, that Ukraine has a certain gap in the field of energy efficiency (we consume 2-3 times more electricity than neighbouring Poland, which has almost the same territory and population density). Since Ukraine joined the Climate Agreement, it has committed to minimize carbon emissions by 2050, and this can only be achieved by promoting energy efficiency. The Head of the State Agency on Energy Efficiency also outlined the urgent initiatives, on which the Agency is working on, namely:

• Electricity origin guarantee systems. After all, every consumer has the right to know what electricity he consumes, so Ukraine must ensure guarantees of origin.
• Bioenergy, in the field of which the Agency has already developed 5 draft laws. According to Kostiantyn Gura, it is necessary to create an effective exchange to sale this type of fuel. The key issue is the cost and quality of biomass. The main task of the State Agency on Energy Efficiency is to create a transparent platform where all biomass producers will sell clean and high-quality fuel at affordable prices.
• Growing energy crops on lands not suitable for the traditional agricultural ones. For today, these lands are really not used in any way. The Agency plans to hand over these lands to the authorities cheaper than the initial cost, which in the future will help to attract investors.
• Development of the biomethane market. Kostiantyn Gura noticed, that the main task in this sphere is the ability to give biomethane at one point and consume at another. This may be possible through the involvement of the GTS Operator, which is already able to contribute to the development of this technology. Kostiantyn Gura also considers it necessary to exempt biofuels from paying the Carbon Tax, as this is not a global principle.
• Development of "green" hydrogen, on which the agency is already actively working and participating in the development of the roadmap.
• Waste recycling and disposal. Currently, 99% of waste in Ukraine goes to the landfills, while in Sweden 99% of waste is being
• Work on the introduction of green bonds. It is expected that this form of financial assistance will attract about 30 billion euros to Ukraine's economy by 2030.

Questions:

How relevant is the association's involvement in your work now? Where can we be useful to you?

"Firstly, it is assistance in the adoption of legislation in Ukraine. We develop it quite effectively. Currently, we have total 17 draft laws and regulations to be prepared. We hope, that the association will be able to study and support these initiatives, go to the Parliament and help the authorities approve these projects. Secondly, we have several working groups and always look forward to active cooperation. We will be glad if you join them ",- Kostiantyn Gura answers.

Please tell us more about the implementation of green bonds?

"Green bonds can be sovereign, municipal and corporate. We have chosen for our vector municipal ones. This means, that municipalities can host programs at the local level and create the ideas, on which our agency should provide support and implementation of developed projects, and after the verification of these project, financial institutions will be able to issue the bonds. It remains to be seen who will carry out the verification".

So, municipalities can actually start working on bonds?

"Yes and no. The question is who will verify the green bonds. Currently, options are available: to verify by relying on the State Agency on Energy Efficiency together with other ministries, or to verify bonds by contacting private commercial organizations, but the cost of such service will be much more expensive, but faster".

See the presentation of K. Gura in the appendix.

The third part of the meeting concerned the Hydrogen Working Group. In general, participants noted the following:

• The draft Hydrogen Roadmap has a number of gaps, in particular: uncertainty of the time limits within which the projects are to be developed; lack of potential consumers and integration schemes into the economy of Ukraine; lack of calculations and specific steps for the total production and consumption of green hydrogen.
• It was also noted that the Hydrogen Roadmap is theoretical rather than practical.
• First of all, it is necessary to start with a clear definition of "green hydrogen", as well as markets for hydrogen production and its application, including the potential for balancing the energy system.

Sincerely,

Oleksandra Gumeniuk