Wind power plants (WPPs), with the exception of one participant, have fully started selling electricity on the free market since October 2023, abandoning the intermediary services of the state-owned enterprise Guaranteed Buyer.

This was announced by Chairman of the Board of the Ukrainian Wind Energy Association (UWEA) Andriy Konechenkov during the "Energy Security Talks. Another 'war' winter behind. State of energy system," organized by DIXI Group on Wednesday.

"Starting from October last year, the wind energy industry, with the exception of one wind power plant where there are Chinese investors, entered the free market and today operates without Guaranteed Buyer," he noted.

According to Konechenkov, the main reason for the wind farms' refusal of Guaranteed Buyer services was the state-owned enterprise's chronic debt to pay compensation for renewable energy generation at the feed-in tariff.

"And by the way, the wind energy industry is now more comfortable working in the free market than waiting for the feed-in tariff to be returned to it," the UWEA head said.

According to the association, Ukraine has 36 wind farms with a total installed capacity of 1.9 GW.

Since the start of the full-scale war with Russia, the wind energy industry has increased its generating capacity by 238 MW. In particular, in 2023, some 146 new wind farm capacities and 45 solar power plants were installed.

As Konechenkov explained, the figure of 45 MW is the official data of the National Energy and Utilities Regulatory Commission (NEURC), and the higher figures for the increase in SPP capacity over the past year, which are used by other Ukrainian sources, include home power plants.