The European Business Association (EBA) has appealed to the Ministry of Energy of Ukraine and the State Enterprise NAEK Energoatom with a proposal to use the high liquidity of Ukrainian banks to provide targeted financing for nuclear power plants in order to settle debts among electricity market participants.
"As a result, this will allow for the rapid settlement of debts to the State Enterprise 'Guaranteed Buyer' and the planned repayment of borrowed funds by the borrower from the income generated from current operations," the EBA explained the expected outcome of the proposed mechanism.
The association believes that this approach will inject liquidity into the market before the heating season begins and enable the repayment of debts to investors in distributed generation.
According to the EBA, as of September 2024, Energoatom's debt to the state enterprise Guaranteed Buyer amounts to UAH 12.4 billion, while Guaranteed Buyer's debt to universal service providers stands at UAH 12.3 billion.
In turn, Guaranteed Buyer's debt to producers from alternative sources exceeds UAH 34 billion, and NEC Ukrenergo's debt to Guaranteed Buyer, in light of the increasing share of electricity production from alternative sources, has reached approximately UAH 29 billion.
"The association's experts emphasize that this debt is spread across the entire electricity market chain: distribution system operators, Ukrenergo, Guaranteed Buyer, and producers from renewable energy sources. Therefore, the EBA considers solving this problem to be an extremely important and urgent issue that requires maximum involvement from all interested parties," stated the EBA.
