“ROTTERDAM+” PROBLEM: LOOKING BEYOND THE HORIZON OR GOING BACK TO THE PAST

PHOTO: fakty.ictv.ua

Expert in energy-related issues, the Ukrainian Institute for the Future, Andrian Prokip

For more than two years there has been a fierce debate about the adequacy of the use of import indicative in forming the price of coal-based electricity, the so-called Rotterdam plus formula. In addition to fierce public discussions the anti-corruption authorities have also launched an investigation. This approach is indeed controversial. However, when we are speaking about the Rotterdam plus formula, we are losing track of really important thing – the perspective on how should the structure of power generation capacity look like in the future and what is the role of the coal sector.

Rotterdam is the benchmark

Since the day when Ukraine got its independence and since the beginning of the undeclared war with Russia, coal has been the only energy resource, and Ukraine has been fully supplied with it and was not dependent on external supplies. However, after the beginning of the military conflict in the Donbas region, the delivering of thermal coal coming from this region (that was responsible for the bulk amount of it) was under threat: in the autumn of 2014 the problem of delivering coal and stockpiling it on the power generating