Deputy Minister of Energy of Ukraine Svitlana Grynchuk is one of the few women in the Ukrainian energy industry, thanks to whose efforts reforms in the sector are implemented despite the war. Ms. Grynchuk is an energy, climate change, and environmental protection expert with experience in the Government of Ukraine, international financial institutions, and technical assistance projects. Performing as the Deputy Minister of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources of Ukraine for European Integration, Ms. Grynchuk supervised and coordinated work on climate change, European integration, sustainable development, energy efficiency, and climate finance. She was an adviser to the Minister of Finance of Ukraine and the Prime Minister of Ukraine. Before becoming Ukraine’s Deputy Minister of Energy, she worked as the Director of the Reform Support Office under the Ministry of Energy.
Ms. Grynchuk was in Kyiv, when Russia’s full-scale invasion started, working on the international project “Fair transformation of coal regions of Ukraine.” At the beginning of the first summer of the war, she became an adviser to the Minister of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources of Ukraine (Mindovkillya). At the end of August 2022, she was Deputy Minister for European Integration in the same Ministry of Environment.
When asked whether Ukraine could go through the challenges of war without international aid, Deputy Minister of Energy Svitlana Grynchuk answered that this support is crucial for the modernization of the Ukrainian energy system, replacement of outdated Soviet equipment, decentralization of generating capacities, reform of the sector, and its integration into a single European energy system.
Since the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, the Ministry of Energy of Ukraine has been receiving substantial international support. Through its Energy Security Project, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) helps adapt Ukrainian energy legislation to European legislation, promoting the integration of Ukrainian energy markets with those of Europe. In addition, USAID significantly helps restore the operations of energy infrastructure damaged or destroyed due to targeted enemy shelling. “Since April 2022, the USAID Energy Security Project has been acting as an independent procurement agent for the Ukraine Energy Support Fund (UESF), helping to procure critical equipment to meet the urgent needs of Ukraine’s energy sector. USAID ESP provides this assistance free of charge, cooperating closely with the Secretariat of the Energy Community and the Ministry of Energy of Ukraine.”
Since the development of integrity and transparency in the energy sector is crucially important for the integration of Ukraine into the European Union and the further economic development of the country, Deputy Minister of Energy Svitlana Grynchuk emphasizes the transposition of the main principles of EU Regulation No. 1227/2011 on the integrity and transparency of wholesale energy markets into Ukrainian energy legislation (REMIT), affirming Ukraine’s intention to comply with its obligations to European partners within the framework of the Association Agreement with the EU and the Energy Community Treaty. The law prohibits insider trading and market manipulation, creates a legal basis for improving market transparency, and enables the national energy regulator – NEURC – to implement a proper and effective system of market regulation.
When asked about the plans for the post-war future of the Ukrainian energy industry, Ms. Grynchuk prioritizes climate neutrality and the availability of clean energy, overcoming energy poverty, developing an innovative and decentralized energy system, fully functional energy markets, and their integration into international ones.
Ms. Gynchuk says that it is worth focusing separately on the introduction of European principles of balancing into Ukrainian energy legislation, which will make it possible to integrate into the European energy market segments of the Ukrainian electricity market such as the day-ahead market, the intraday market, the balancing market, and the market of auxiliary services. Due to this, opportunities for commercial export and import will expand, increasing competition, safety, and reliability of electric energy supply, diversification of resources, and sources of supply.
Deputy Minister of Energy of Ukraine Svitlana Grynchuk notes the development of biomethane production and its export to the EU as a separate promising direction. “Ukraine has an extraordinary potential in the production of biomethane. The Ukrainian gas transportation system is entirely suitable for the transportation of biomethane. Since Ukraine plans to develop the biomethane industry and establish exports to the EU, we need to ensure the availability of relevant secondary legislation. According to Ms. Grynchuk, the USAID Energy Security Project actively helps with this.
Ms. Grynchuk is fond of reading, music, and sports (badminton, cycling), and she loves animals.
Since 2018, USAID, through the Energy Security Project (ESP) has been providing comprehensive technical assistance to the Ministry of Energy of Ukraine, aimed at strengthening the country’s energy security, integrating Ukrainian energy markets with European ones, and reforming the energy sector according to the principles of sustainability and reliability of energy supplies, energy availability for Ukrainians and efficiency of functioning and development of energy infrastructure.