Cities were given energy assets. What to do with them — that part was left to the cities.

At the Congress of Communities under the President of Ukraine, we spoke openly with mayors.

Most assume the problem is the equipment. The real problem is management. The same CHP unit — in the hands of energy professionals, it delivers fundamentally different results.

When generation isn't managed professionally, a city loses money every day and carries risks it doesn't have to. Not because of unwillingness. Because this is a complex energy business. Not a municipal core competency.

The fact that this conversation happened at the level of the Congress of Communities under the President is a signal: the state is looking for a systemic solution.

ECU is the state operator of distributed generation. Our mandate: take on the market, regulatory, and operational complexity — so cities don't carry it alone.

Two cities. Same logic.

Zaporizhzhia: CHP unit, 7.6 MW. Costs down 51%. Gross margin — UAH 122.9M per year. Same equipment. Different management.

Lviv: zero capital investment — solely through participation in ECU's Balancing Group. UAH 2.4M in 4.5 months.

The difference isn't the hardware. The difference is having energy professionals run an energy business.