DTEK has launched the largest battery storage facility in eastern Europe to bolster Ukraine’s energy system ahead of expected mass Russian attacks on infrastructure this winter, the Ukrainian energy giant announced on Sept. 10.The leading energy firm in Ukraine partnered with U.S.-based company Fluence Energy Inc. to build and connect six new battery storage systems to the grid in the Kyiv and Dnipropetrovsk oblasts.
The batteries, varying from 20 to 50 megawatts each, form a 200 megawatt system — enough to power 600,000 Ukrainian homes for two hours — that reduces blackout risks and helps stabilize the grid. “This system is bringing more resilience to the energy system,” DTEK’s CEO Maxim Timchenko said at a press briefing on Sept. 10, later adding that he anticipates Russia will resume heavy attacks on Ukraine’s energy facilities. Initially, a press tour was arranged at one of the battery sites in Kyiv Oblast on Sept. 10. The company canceled the site visit at midnight following a security warning. Shortly after, Russian drones and missiles targeted Kyiv and the surrounding area. DTEK invested 125 million euros ($146 million) into the project and built it in record time between March and August 2025, with commercial operations starting on Oct. 1. Constructions of this size normally take 12-15 months, but DTEK noted Ukraine’s urgency for the project to commence before the autumn-winter season.The country is bracing for another wave of Russian attacks, with a recent strike on a thermal power plant in Kyiv Oblast cutting off electricity to part of the region on Sept. 8.
Areas away from the front line have largely avoided blackouts this year, but that could change as Russia steps up its attacks, Serhii Kovalenko, the CEO of energy supplier Yasno, a DTEK subsidiary, previously warned. The batteries are spread out across six different locations in Ukraine, which helps de-risk the projects from Russian attacks compared to a centralized system, Julian Jansen, managing director covering southern and eastern Europe at Fluence, said during the briefing. DTEK cannot completely reduce the risk of Russian attacks by 100% and the company is developing different ways to improve the protection of the battery system, said Timchenko during the briefing. Drone interceptors and passive defenses like concrete shelters are working well for the company, he added. Russian strikes damaged 90% of DTEK’s thermal power plants last year and nearly 10,000 power facilities since the start of the full-scale invasion, leaving tens of millions of Ukrainians without power.
Since 2022, DTEK has spent 346 million euros ($405 million) restoring its thermal plants and 17 million euros ($20 million) on power facilities like substations, transmission lines, and transformer points. The battery storage, alongside the company’s other ongoing projects like wind farms in the Mykolaiv and Poltava oblasts, proves that DTEK can still build new projects despite the attacks, said Timchenko.
The cooperation with Fluence, which supplied the equipment, is a symbol of Ukrainian-U.S. partnership and bolsters DTEK’s goal of becoming “a gate opener” for foreign companies willing to invest in Ukraine, he added.It is the first major energy infrastructure project in Ukraine since Kyiv and Washington signed an economic partnership for Ukraine’s natural resources on April 30. “Despite the war, we invest in Ukraine’s recovery and growth. Our energy sector, having withstood countless Russian attacks, now gains new momentum,” owner of DTEK and Ukraine’s richest man, Rinat Akhmetov, said in a press release published on Sept. 11.“We are launching a cutting-edge energy storage system — unique not only for Ukraine, but for Western nations as well.”
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