EBRD asks energy regulator to allow Guaranteed Buyer to use loans of state-run banks issued to Ukrenergo to pay to ‘green’ generation

Managing Director of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) for Eastern Europe and the Caucasus Matteo Patrone has appealed to Head of the National Energy and Utilities Regulatory Commission of Ukraine (NEURC) Valeriy Tarasiuk with a request to allow state-owned enterprise Guaranteed Buyer to use UAH 10.25 billion taken by NPC Ukrenergo from state-run banks under government guarantees to repay the debt for 2020 to suppliers of electricity generated from renewable energy sources (RES).

"Your commission today is considering the possibility of providing SOE Guaranteed Buyer with instructions to prevent the use of the funds of the said loan taken by NPC Ukrenergo to repay the debt to renewable energy suppliers. We are concerned that the introduction of such a restriction and the corresponding failure to fulfill the obligation to repay this debt will have an additional negative impact on the stability of the sector," Patrone said on January 13 in a letter addressed to Tarasiuk posted by MP Oleksiy Honcharenko on Thursday.

According to some sources, Director of the Energy Community Secretariat Janez Kopač also addressed the head of NEURC with a letter of similar content.

As Patrone said, the presence of significant debts to suppliers of electricity from renewable energy sources is a violation of Ukrainian legislation, as well as the government's obligations under the memorandum of understanding with "green" investors, which was signed in July 2020.

"One of these obligations provided for the repayment of 40% of the debt accumulated until July 2020 inclusive by the end of 2020… and although NPC Ukrenergo signed a state-guaranteed loan to repay 40% of the debt for electricity from renewable energy sources, in accordance with the memorandum, this repayment is still did not take place," the representative of the EBRD said.

Source: www.en.interfax.com.ua