Oschadbank and the state energy trader "Energy Company of Ukraine" ("ECU") have signed a memorandum of cooperation aimed at simplifying the procedures and improving the conditions for financing new energy projects in the territorial communities of Ukraine.
As explained in a release from "ECU" on Thursday, the parties have established a joint program to facilitate the financing and implementation of energy projects at the community level. According to the memorandum, "ECU" will carry out economic and technical analysis of the projects initiated by the communities that seek funding. The company will also offer communities market tools to enhance the economic efficiency and sustainability of such projects, including cooperation within self-production mechanisms, aggregated and balancing groups. The economic models developed by "ECU" will serve as the basis for Oschadbank's financial assessment of their profitability and return on investment when making lending decisions.
"From our experience, one of the barriers to the development of decentralized generation is the lack of relevant expertise in the overwhelming majority of small communities. Attracting the specialized expertise of "ECU" will enable communities to evaluate the potential for developing their own energy projects, which can not only ensure a stable energy supply or replace it with their own generation but also bring revenue to the community budget," commented Yuriy Kation, Deputy Chairman of Oschadbank's Management Board responsible for corporate business.
He added that Oschad has extensive expertise in working with energy projects of any complexity, and its market share exceeds 31%.
According to Vitaliy Butenko, CEO of "ECU", the company is constantly seeking and creating pathways to strengthen the market paradigm of energy supply security for communities, and the combination of the deep market expertise of its team with the reliable financial platform of Oschadbank creates conditions for achieving win-win solutions in one of the most complex but strategically important sectors of energy supply.
As reported, in October 2024, the head of "ECU", Vitaliy Butenko, stated that the company aims to occupy the niche of a state operator for distributed generation (DG) to assist municipal enterprises and cities with its launch and operation. On December 19, "ECU", the association "CIGRÉ – Ukraine", and the Association of Small Towns of Ukraine (AMGU) signed a memorandum of cooperation on the development of distributed generation in the regions.
In a quick interview with "Energy Reform" in early January 2025, Butenko noted that the company is developing a special division that will focus on comprehensive support for the development of distributed generation in the regions. According to him, it will define a list of joint pilot projects for implementation, which, once tested, can be scaled to other communities across the country.
In a quick interview with "Energy Reform" at the end of February 2025, Yevhen Myachin, Director of the Development and Support Department of Corporate Business at Oschadbank, reported that in the corporate business segment, the bank has signed loan agreements for energy projects amounting to EUR 40 million in the first one and a half months of this year, which is almost as much as the entire previous year - EUR 45 million. Therefore, it sees a clear trend towards growth in the financing volume of energy projects.