A New Reality for Business
— Today, there is much talk about rising electricity prices. How systemic and critical is this?
— This is no longer a temporary phenomenon; it is the new reality. Business in Ukraine operates under conditions where electricity prices are shaped by several factors: generation deficits, rising costs of imported electricity, worn-out infrastructure, and high risks to the power grid. But the key factor is the change in the role of energy itself. If it used to be just an expense, today it is a factor that directly affects business profitability.
For many sectors—such as industrial manufacturing, agriculture, and logistics—the share of energy costs already accounts for 10–30% of the cost of production. When the price rises by even 20–30%, it immediately eats into the margin. The main problem is not just the cost itself, but its unpredictability. Businesses cannot accurately plan expenses if they depend solely on the market. That is why companies are changing their approach: from buying energy to managing it.
The Market Is Divided into Two Types of Companies
— You often say that businesses have split into those who pay and those who earn. What does this mean in practice?
— Yes, today we effectively see two types of companies.
The first are those fully dependent on the external power system. They buy electricity at market tariffs, which are rising, and have no tools to influence their costs. For them, every tariff hike is a direct hit to profitability.
The second are companies that have already invested in their own generation and storage: solar power plants, storage systems, and energy management. They cover 30–70% of their consumption through SPPs and use storage systems to optimize their consumption profile. They partially or fully control their energy. This is where it gets interesting: such businesses don't just get savings; they manage energy as an asset.
— How profitable is it to invest in solar power plants today?
— SPPs are one of the most predictable tools for cost reduction today. On average:
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The payback period for commercial SPPs is currently about 3 years.
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The lifespan of a station is 25 years or more.
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After payback, the business receives virtually free electricity for many years.
This means the enterprise fixes a portion of its energy costs for years to come.
— What role do energy storage systems play?
— Energy storage systems (ESS) are the key to maximum efficiency. Without ESS, you are only halfway in the game. A solar station alone solves only part of the problem: most energy is generated during the day when the sun is out, but businesses consume according to their work schedules, not the sun.
ESS allows for storing excess generation from SPPs, covering peak consumption, reducing grid load, providing backup power, and—most interestingly—opening opportunities for energy arbitrage.
Businesses Are Starting to Earn from Energy
— What does "earning from electricity" mean? It sounds unusual for most entrepreneurs.
— It only sounds unusual because most businesses still think of electricity as an "invoice expense." In reality, it is a commodity like any other, but a very volatile one, which can be leveraged.
1. Energy Arbitrage: Business buys electricity when it is cheap and stores it. When tariffs rise, it uses its own resource instead of expensive grid power or partially returns it to the grid.
2. Replacing Expensive Electricity: An enterprise avoids buying electricity during peak hours, when the price can be 400% higher, by using its own (SPP) or stored (ESS) energy. The combination of SPP and storage allows for:
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Charging the system when electricity is 30–50% cheaper.
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Smoothing peak loads.
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Reducing the weighted average cost of electricity.
3. Reducing Losses from Downtime: For manufacturing, a single day of downtime can cost from 100,000 to several million UAH. "Earning" is not always about direct sales; it is often about savings, stability, and control.
The Cost of Delay
— What is the most common mistake businesses make?
— Putting it off until later. The implementation time for an energy project is 3 to 9 months. Every month of delay is lost money. For an enterprise consuming 100 MWh per month at an average tariff of 12 UAH/kWh, monthly costs are 1.2 million UAH.
If an SPP covers even 40% of daytime consumption, the business could be saving about 480,000 UAH every month. Delaying the decision for a year means losing approximately 6 million UAH in potential savings.
The Future of Energy Systems
— How do you see the situation evolving over the next 3–5 years?
— Business will move from point solutions to systemic ones. The model will look like this:
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Own generation (SPPs or other renewables).
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Storage systems (ESS).
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Digital management (EMS).
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Integration into the operational model.
Every enterprise will strive to become a mini-power system, reducing market dependence by 50–80% and fully controlling energy costs. Solar is no longer just a "green initiative"—it is a financial instrument.
"ENERGY BUSINESS" DOSSIER
Denis KOSOY — CEO and co-founder of ETL Group, entrepreneur.
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Education: California State University, Northridge (Finance and Management). Moorpark College and Los Angeles City College (Computer Science); specialized technical training at Technion (Israel Institute of Technology).
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Career: Specialist in energy infrastructure development, renewable energy projects, and storage systems. Since 2018, he has developed ETL Group, which has become an EPC partner for leading global brands (Tongwei, Risen, Huawei) and the official distributor of LONGI in Ukraine. Over the past year, the company has implemented over 20 industrial solar generation projects with a total capacity of about 50 MW. Annual turnover exceeds 423 million UAH. He is also a co-founder of the Flash charging infrastructure network, which includes over 120 stations in more than 50 cities in Ukraine.
