Record electricity imports to Ukraine
For comparison: in December imports amounted to 639.5 thousand MWh, in November – 414.7 thousand MWh. The change of price caps (regulatory restrictions) in the electricity market was the key decision that allowed imports to increase sharply after large-scale blackouts.
This was stated by Andrian Prokip, a doctor of economic sciences and head of energy programs at the Ukrainian Institute for the Future, RBC-Ukraine wrote.
According to the expert, after the introduction of the state of emergency in the energy sector, one of the natural steps was to increase imports. However, this was hindered by regulatory restrictions: electricity from the EU was often more expensive than the price caps on the Ukrainian market allowed.
“Companies could not import electricity that was more expensive than the authorized ceiling prices on the Ukrainian market,” Prokip said.
To remove this restriction, the regulator raised price caps on the day-ahead, intraday and balancing segments of the market starting January 17. After that, average daily imports rose from 23.7 thousand MWh to 33.8 thousand MWh.
What did the increase in price-caps yield
Recall that the quarterly report of the Energy Community – Ukraine Energy Market Observatory for the fourth quarter of 2025 states that the revision of price tags allowed unblocking economically feasible imports during the deficit period and became one of the key factors in stabilizing the energy system.
As previously reported, Ukrhydroenergo said that the increase in price-keys in the electricity market had a systemic effect in terms of attracting imports and helped balance the system.
Energy Minister Denys Shmygal also said that the increase in ceiling prices on the spot electricity market allowed to attract about 1GW of additional imported capacity and to use the freed resource for the needs of the population.
