RESOLUTION
of the 10th International conference of hydropower engineers
«Development of Hydropower in mountainregions,
as a basis for the further development of regions.
Experience of the countries of the European Union for Ukraine»
The 10th International Conference of Hydropower Engineers was held on September 11-12, 2024. on the initiative and organization of the Public Union “Association “Hydropower of Ukraine” and with the support of the Office of the President of Ukraine, the Ministry of Energy of Ukraine and the Zakarpattia Regional State Administration.
Representatives of state institutions and institutes of Ukraine, members of the Association “Hydropower of Ukraine, other public organizations, higher education institutions and enterprises of Ukraine, foreign associations and companies from a number of European Union countries, their representative offices in Ukraine and relevant regional representative offices of banks and funds took part in the conference. from the United States of America.
Conference participants listened to reports on the current state of hydropower and the United Energy System in Ukraine, opportunities for the development of regional distributed generation in the Carpathian region of Ukraine with priority use of clean energy from renewable sources based on the construction of hydroelectric power plants (HPS) and hydroelectric storage power plants (PSPP) of small and average power, the experience of a number of European countries in the development of the hydropower potential of mountain rivers and the development of the economy of the respective regions of these countries, and the problems and prospects of the development of communities in the mountainous regions of Carpathian Ukraine.
The participants of the conference consider it their duty to declare that the aggressive full-scale war against Ukraine waged by the Russian Federation aims, in addition to the direct and undisguised genocide of the Ukrainian people, to destroy both individual energy facilities of the country and the entire United Energy System of Ukraine, which we have always been proud of and which is a truly great achievement of our country. And although we are sure that these cruel and cynical missile strikes will not be able to disable the power system itself, still, in our opinion, it is time to think about its restoration with a change in the configuration of the UES in the conditions of the accelerated development of renewable energy sources. including small hydropower, with the transition from a purely centralized to a gradually decentralized, more flexible and resistant to military conflicts system, the basis of which will be regional distributed generation facilities.
Summing up the results of the conference, we would like to draw the attention of the state authorities in Ukraine to the need for further and more intensive development of hydropower, especially in the western part of the country, taking into account the significant existing hydropower potential of small river basins in mountainous areas, which, meanwhile, still needs additional of modern field research in most regions of the Carpathian region.
The participants of the conference note that today the indicators of the development of hydropower in the mountainous area of the Carpathian region of Ukraine are significantly inferior to the corresponding indicators of the development of the industry in most European countries
Thus, according to the Hydropower of Ukraine Association, by the end of 2021, 40 small hydroelectric power stations with a total capacity of about 35 MW and 1 hydroelectric power station were in operation in 5 regions of the Carpathian region of Ukraine (Zakarpattia, Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk, Chernivtsi, and Ternopil regions) (Tereble-Rytska) with a capacity of 30 MW, i.e. Ukraine has 65 MW of developed hydrotechnical potential in these areas with a technically possible potential of 640 MW according to the Atlas of RES in the 2001 edition and 273 MW according to the Institute of Renewable Energy of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine by established means office studies using satellite equipment and special software. That is, today we have the following relative indicators: 10.1% and 24.8%, depending on which potential we take as the basis for calculations.
At the same time, according to the data of the collection “World Atlas of Hydropower & Dams 2023”, provided by our colleagues from the Polish Hydropower Association, the corresponding percentage of development of hydrotechnical potential in European countries is: Austria – 68%, France – 52.5%, Germany – 49.0%, Italy – 55.6%, Norway – 64.3%, Switzerland – 81.7%, Poland – 19.2%.
The quantitative indicators of hydroelectric power plants located in the mountainous regions of Central and Western Europe and operating both in the system of national networks of their countries and locally for the needs of individual households or small enterprises are also impressive. So, for example, there are about 5,000 hydroelectric power plants operating in Austria, most of which, by our standards, belong to the category of small hydroelectric power plants, but many of these hydroelectric power plants have a capacity of more than 10 MW. The picture is similar in other countries, where thousands of HPS and PSPP also operating, mostly in mountainous areas.
The participants of the conference believe that the main reasons for Ukraine’s significant lag in developing the hydrotechnical potential of small rivers of the Carpathian region lie, first of all, in the organizational plane. And we propose to start correcting the situation by changing the state’s approach to this process, in our opinion, it is the state authorities that should at the legislative level resolve the issue of organizing the process of providing territorial communities with electric energy from local renewable energy sources, which are rich in this or that region, for the purpose of their further socio-economic development in accordance with the world trends of energy supply for the development of nities and recreational and sanatorium-resort areas for recreation and treatment of the country’s population.
It should also, of course, be noted that among the problems that today hinder the development of hydropower in the mountainous area of the Carpathian region of Ukraine, in addition to the organizational ones, the most important and perhaps the most important problem is the investor’s trust in the state. The essence of this problem lies in the economic plane and it is connected, first of all, with the functioning of the “green” tariff, the work of the new Energorynk and the impossibility of a 100 percent return by investors of their investments that were invested under state guarantees and, what is very important, these guarantees, in turn, were regulated at the legislative level, but in recent years, these guarantees and investment return norms are constantly revised in violation of this legislation. This negative practice must also be changed by the state by its willful decision.
Among other problematic issues that stand in the way of the development of hydropower in the mountainous area of the Carpathian region, it is necessary to single out a large layer of “eternal” problems related to the allocation of land for the construction of energy facilities and the granting of permits for its commencement, with weak mutual understanding and the lack of practical mutually beneficial cooperation with territorial communities and environmental organizations, which, unfortunately, act for their own reasons and not always for the benefit of people and the benefit of regional development.
The participants of the conference declare that Ukraine has a significant potential for rapid improvement of work in the direction of changing approaches to the view of the possibilities of renewable energy in general, and hydropower, in particular, in providing territorial communities of the Carpathian region with a guaranteed supply of ecologically clean electricity for the purpose of further socio-economic development of these regions We have everything for this: advanced scientific and design potential and experience in the construction of hydropower facilities of various categories of complexity and capacity.
For today, it is only necessary to solve those problematic issues that stand in the way of the development of the region and were discussed above.
Summarizing the results of the two-day work of the 10th International Conference of Hydropower Engineers in Zakarpattia, the conference participants, with the main goal of achieving positive changes in the development of the hydropower potential of the mountain rivers of the Carpathian region for further socio-economic growth and improving the lives of communities, propose:
- Further development of hydropower in the Carpathian region of Ukraine should be carried out on the basis of “Schemes of water management and hydropower use of small rivers of Ukraine, based on ecological criteria”, which must be developed separately for each region and for each river basin of the region. Regulations for the development of such “Schemes…” were prepared by specialists in 2016 Association “Hydropower of Ukraine”, approved by its Scientific and Technical Council and Presidium There is also positive practice in the development of such “Schemes…” for Lviv region in 2018
- In order to finance works on the development of “Schemes…”, preliminary technical and economic justifications for the construction of hydroelectric power plants and hydroelectric power plants in accordance with these “Schemes…”, preparation of tender proposals and conducting tenders for the construction of hydropower facilities to be created in each region separately, or at the level of the country as a whole, create the “Hydropower Development Fund” in the form of a joint-stock company in accordance with the current legislation of Ukraine.
Such a fund was once created in Georgia, and the practice of its application is currently very positive and effective..
- At the state level, develop the “Regulations on stimulating the process of hydropower development in the Carpathian region of Ukraine” and the “Program for the construction of hydroelectric power plants and gas power plants in the mountainous area of the Carpathian region of Ukraine for 2025-2035.”
- At the legislative level, make the necessary changes in the work of the new Energy Market of Ukraine and SE “Guaranteed Buyer” in order to once and for all resolve the issue of mutual settlements with sellers of clean green electricity by returning their investments in this industry.
- To fully support the efforts to develop and create the latest technologies of specialized production of hydropower enterprises and to recommend them to inform the public more widely about their capabilities and achievements.
- Draw the attention of the Ministry of Energy of Ukraine, the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine and the heads of higher education institutions and enterprises of the hydropower industry to the need for comprehensive support at the state level and targeted funding for the training of hydropower specialists and hydrotechnicians, including during their training, passing of production practices and solving social issues.
