Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: Ukraine’s power infrastructure has been a primary target of Russian attackssince the start of the full-scale invasion in February 2022. The country wasonce an energy exporter, but its generation capacity has regularly fallenshort of domestic demand since early 2024 due to intensified attacks. Administrativebodies safeguard the power system and protect households andcommercial customers by repairing and rebuilding generation and transmissioncapacity, supporting decentralised generation, expanding imports, andregulating wholesale and retail markets — including adjusting price caps.However, due to capacity shortages combined with market interventions, demandfor electricity often exceeds supply, necessitating outages to preventunmanageable blackouts. These load-shedding measures include a sophisticatedsystem of pre-announced, block-wise outages called hourly outageschedules that are difficult for customers to understand, costly to manage,and likely economically inefficient. This paper describes the load sheddingprocess in Ukraine (including exemptions), the regulated price caps for endconsumers, and the implications of both. We also provide actionable long andshort-term advice for improving how outages are handled.
Source: Energy Policy
Language: English
Subfield: General Energy
Field: Energy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
Estimated APC paid: $3,940
OpenAlex ID: W7154472362