Head of Ukraine's National Energy Company Ukrenergo Vsevolod Kovalchuk has predicted a balance limit of up to 10% of green electricity in 2020.

Kovalchuk said on Facebook that due to the abnormally warm November, NEC dispatchers imposed restrictions on Botiyevska, Prymorska-1 and Orlovska wind farms from 3:44 to 4:00 and from 5:25 to 6:00 on Tuesday. The first time the total limit value was 300 MW, the second – 395 MW.

He said seven power units of thermal power plans (TPPs) were put into reserve. In addition, dispatchers had to unload operating units of the TPPs by more than 500 MW.

"The limitations of these wind farms are a necessary step. It should be clarified that all the offers of the balancing market participants were exhausted, and the difference between the trading and physical generation schedules was about 1620 MW. That is, suppliers announced more electricity for purchase than they actually delivered to consumers," Kovalchuk said.

According to him, an important problem, in addition to the ever-increasing volume of green generation, which the energy system can no longer balance during certain periods, is also a very poor forecast of supply volumes.

Ukrenergo has long and repeatedly raised the question that Ukraine does not have a high-precision forecasting system for wind farms and solar power plants, and there are no highly maneuvering balancing capacities corresponding to the rapid increase in the share of clean energy. Until now, the volume of construction of new renewable energy systems (RES) has not been regulated in any way, the start of auctions and the like have been delayed. Our RES also still do not bear any financial responsibility for imbalances that are created in the energy system, unlike all other market participants (including those on the consumer side)," Kovalchuk said.

At the same time, DTEK Energy Communications Director Iryna Miliutina said on Facebook that the limitation for wind farms is related to the continued import of electricity from Belarus and the Russian Federation. In particular, the capacity of imports from these countries on Monday amounted to 875 MW.

As reported, on October 16 the Rada energy committee approved bill No. 2236-2 (the Servant of the People party), which allows, when dispatching, to give priority to operator-producers of alternative energy with an installed capacity of up to 150 MW. Compensation of the cost of electricity not sold at the feed-in tariff in connection with dispatching restrictions is also provided to the stations whose capacity does not exceed 150 MW.

Ukrainian and international green project operators and the Energy Community have criticized such the initiative. The Energy Community emphasized that such a solution cannot be justified only for reasons of reliability and safety of the energy system and is contrary to the goals of decarbonization.

Prime Minister Oleksiy Honcharuk said that Ukraine does not intend to retrospectively make changes to the system of stimulating the development of RES and plans to find a balanced solution to the problem.

Andriy Gerus, the head of the Verkhovna Rada committee on energy and housing and utilities services, told the Kyiv-based Interfax-Ukraine news agency that President's Office Deputy Head Yulia Kovaliv will hold a series of meetings with investors and banks to determine the concept of resolving the situation with the rapidly developing green generation associated with extremely attractive tariffs for it and guarantees for its mandatory purchase .

According to the Energy and Utilities National Regulator Commission of Ukraine, at the end of the third quarter of 2019, the total capacity of the renewable energy facilities put into operation was 4.591 GW, and the share of renewable energy sources in the generation structure was 4.9%.

In particular, the capacity of renewable energy facilities put into operation in July-September 2019 amounted to 956 MW, which is six times higher than the figure for the same period in 2018. Thus, the capacity of solar power plants commissioned in the third quarter amounted to 779.6 MW (five times more than a year earlier), and wind – 155.2 MW (22 times more).