YASNO

Last winter was the hardest for the Ukrainian energy system. Power plants, transformers and networks were the main target of the enemy. How energy companies continued to work in such conditions, what has changed for electricity consumers and how companies can reduce electricity costs today – YASNO General Director Serhii Kovalenko told.

About YASNO and Areas of It’s Work

A group of companies that supply electricity and gas, implement energy-efficient projects at enterprises and develop a network of charging stations for electric vehicles operates under the YASNO brand.

YASNO provides electricity to 3.5 million families in Kyiv city, Dnipropetrovsk and Donetsk regions. We forecast customers' consumption, purchase electricity on the market, deliver it to end users, and then generate invoices and accept payments. Such functions are assigned by law to electricity suppliers.

YASNO

As for business, more than 80,000 enterprises across Ukraine currently buy electricity from us. These are industrial productions, budget institutions, and small entrepreneurs. We implement a dual fuel approach, so businesses can also purchase gas from YASNO – together with electricity or separately.

Another important direction is turnkey energy-efficient projects, which are carried out by the YASNO Energy Efficiency division for industry. And for electric motorists, we are expanding the network of charging stations across Ukraine – currently it includes 32 fast and 13 slow YASNO E-Mobility chargers.

How Attacks on Energy Facilities and Blackouts Affected Electricity Suppliers and What Challenges YASNO Had to Face

The Ukrainian energy system, which has been under constant fire for several months, is a real phenomenon. As a result of the attacks, up to 60% of energy facilities were damaged – such destruction did not occur in any civilized country. Despite this, thanks to the efforts of our energy workers, the enemy did not succeed in plunging the country into complete darkness. We endured several days of blackouts and power shortages, learned to live by the blackout schedule and use every kilowatt hour as rationally as possible.

Electricity suppliers were also forced to quickly adapt to new conditions. First, the level of consumption in the country decreased – in the first months of the war, many Ukrainians evacuated abroad, and many businesses stopped or limited their activities. This factor significantly influenced the forecasting of the required amount of electricity. In addition, because of this, the total amount of charges decreased. But even the invoiced clients, for obvious reasons, were in no hurry to pay. And it also became a serious challenge. After all, the entire energy sector needed an increased inflow of funds for infrastructure reconstruction.

YASNO

For example, in the first months of the war, the level of settlements of Kyiv residents fell by 20%, and the average monthly payment decreased by 50-70 hryvnias. If earlier half of the residents of the capital paid for electricity without significant delays, then since last year only 30% of residents do so. Today, the payment situation has improved somewhat compared to the beginning of the full-scale invasion, but it is still unstable.

What Has Changed in the Supply of Electricity to Businesses

Due to capacity shortages in the country, the government in early 2023 allowed businesses to buy imported electricity. In this case, it is possible to avoid stabilization shutdowns that occur according to the schedule. The procedure has certain technical nuances, but in general, such a solution has become relevant for individual enterprises with a continuous production cycle. And even when the situation with the electricity supply stabilized, they were in no hurry to abandon this option. As of March 2023, YASNO alone supplied enterprises with 4.2 thousand MWh of imported electricity.

As for the direction of supply for business in general, the market continues to develop. Any company today can freely choose from whom to buy electricity. Large enterprises quite actively use the right to change the supplier, but a different situation has developed among small and medium-sized businesses. Often, the complexity of the process itself stops them from switching to better conditions. Another limiting factor is a lack of understanding of pricing principles. Entrepreneurs, as a rule, react skeptically to the fact that with the same amount of consumption, the amount in the account is different every month. But they don't want to waste time and go into the details of price fluctuations.

We at YASNO approached the solution of these issues comprehensively. The result is a new product that allows businesses to change suppliers in 5 minutes completely online. If according to the standard procedure for this you need to collect a lot of references and go somewhere to conclude a contract, now you can connect to YASNO without any paper document just from your smartphone. We have also created several tariff plans for this product. Each of them has different payment models, so the business can choose the payment terms convenient for itself. But the main thing is that all tariff plans have a fixed price. With it, the business understands how much it will pay for consumed kilowatt hours and can clearly plan its expenses in advance.

What Was the Procurement Campaign 2022/2023 for the Government Customers

In October of last year, a resolution was issued that introduced certain changes in public procurement. For state customers and electricity suppliers, it became important to cancel the condition that the price in the contract can be increased only within 10% at one time. Now, if the price on the electricity market changes, the state customer can sign an additional price change agreement, taking into account the full percentage of market price fluctuations. In addition, the main component of the price, namely the weighted average price on the "day-ahead" market, is equated to other components – regulated tariffs. That is, its change, as well as the adoption of new regulated tariffs, is considered a basis for changing the essential terms of the contract.

For suppliers and customers, this greatly simplifies the price management mechanism in the contract. After all, now there is no need for mandatory confirmation of price fluctuations by authorized bodies, and this saves costs and time for obtaining conclusions. Since there is no maximum percentage increase in the price, the contract is not limited by the final price. Therefore, it is not necessary to conclude additional agreements on price changes – a corresponding notification from the supplier is sufficient.

In general, the new rules simplified the process of purchasing electricity for consumers of the B2G segment. In Ukraine, in the period from October 2022 to March 2023, 12.5 thousand state customers used Prozorro's competitive procedures to purchase 6 billion kWh from suppliers. The suppliers, in turn, had to take part in the announced procurement and, based on its results, conclude the appropriate contract. For this, we used the tools of the SmartTender.biz electronic platform.

YASNO

Along with this, 1.5 thousand state customers across the country concluded direct contracts with suppliers and purchased almost 100 million kWh without using the electronic system.

About One of the New Tools for Selling Electricity – the Prozorro Market Catalog

Electricity as a commodity appeared in the state online catalog on the eve of the war, therefore, of course, it is inappropriate to make any comparisons at the moment. General statistics show that this year's procurement volumes based on requests for price proposals amounted to about 250 million kWh for more than 1,000 customers. Prozorro Market is quite a promising tool, with which we also work on the SmartTender.biz platform.

YASNO

The advantage of purchases through Prozorro Market is, firstly, the absence of a qualification part. That is, suppliers are not required to prepare and submit any documents for a commercial offer – only the price is given, and the participant who offers the lowest one wins. Secondly, the procedure for requesting price offers, in comparison with other types of competitive procurement, has significantly shorter terms for submitting and considering offers, as well as concluding a contract.

Thanks to these features, the Prozorro Market electronic catalog will, in our opinion, become more and more popular.

The Most Effective Solutions for Increasing Energy Efficiency at Enterprises

If we are talking about an industrial enterprise, then energy-efficient modernization will help to achieve the maximum saving of resources. It consists in replacing old equipment, improving lighting, heating, and ventilation systems. Of course, these are quite expensive measures. The business can finance them with its own funds, at the expense of a loan or by engaging an energy service company. The last option will be the most optimal if financial resources are limited, but despite this, the company strives for energy efficiency and needs the help of experts.

An energy service company, or ESCO, is an investor company that implements a turnkey energy-efficient project and guarantees a certain level of savings. It conducts energy audits, purchases equipment, installs and puts it into operation – and does all this at its own expense. As a result, the company has certain savings on the payment of energy resources. And it is from these saved funds that the energy service company receives payment for its services. After the end of the contract, all the equipment remains with the enterprise and it continues to save.

According to the experience of our energy service company, energy savings for businesses can range from 25% to 90%. YASNO Energy Efficiency has already completed more than 100 projects. In 2022 alone, they allowed customer enterprises to reduce consumption by 68.5 million kWh of electricity and 1.4 million cubic meters of gas.

How Small and Medium-Sized Businesses Can Reduce Energy Consumption and Costs

ESCO projects are appropriate mainly for large industrial enterprises, but medium and small businesses can also significantly improve their energy efficiency. And it can be done even without large-scale and expensive measures. For example, if possible, work areas that are constantly heated and lit should be reduced. Also, the effect will be from lowering the temperature in the premises by 4-6 degrees during non-working hours – this will reduce energy consumption by 30%.

Optimizing lighting is important. In this direction, you can abandon the 24-hour illumination of signs, install LED lamps, as well as motion sensors. If the business plans to replace equipment in offices, shops or other premises, it is better to give preference to devices of class A/A+ and higher.

And, of course, it is important to teach employees the rules of rational consumption. No matter how progressive and effective the business solutions are, success largely depends on how engaged employees are.

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