Ukrenergo purchases 500 MW of fast reserves for 5 years

The Ukrenergo national energy company held the second special auction for the purchase of Automatic Frequency Restoration Reserve (aFRR) for a period of five years.

This follows from a statement by the company, the Ukrainian News agency reports.

"Preliminarily, all participants in the auction - 35 companies that made 807 offers - are winners. Of the winning offers, 41 units of generating equipment. About 90% of the participants in the auction are new to the company's energy market. The final results will be published after the appeal period defined according to the preliminary results; an average of 240 MW of load service was purchased each hour, which is more than 41% of the auctioned demand (symmetric reserve) - 62% of the need," the message says.

On average, the prices of load offers ranged from UAH 484 to UAH 971.15 per megawatt, and for symmetrical reserve - from UAH 1,049.40 to UAH 1,330.13 per megawatt.

At the same time, the maximum price for reserve purchase services is UAH 1,339.82 per megawatt.

The winners of the auction for the provision of aFRR services will have a contract fixed in euros with Ukrenergo for five years, with a postponement of the start of service provision for one year.

"That is, investors will have time until October 2025 to build a new power plant and undergo equipment certification. So, in a year, new balancing capacities will appear in the Ukrainian power system. Auxiliary services for providing automatic frequency restoration reserve are services for the readiness of generating equipment to constantly respond to changes in interstate flows between the energy systems of Ukraine and neighboring states. This reserve is provided automatically, and the time of full activation does not exceed 15 minutes. This type of reserve is necessary for the stable, balanced operation of the Ukrainian energy system," the message states.

As the Ukrainian News agency earlier reported, on August 15, Ukrenergo, for the first time, held a long-term special auction for the purchase of aFRR for five years to ensure the stable operation of the power system.

In particular, the company purchased 99 MW of frequency support reserve for five years at a special auction.