Building resilience: Swedish Institute funds project to support Ukraine’s energy infrastructure

It has been nearly three years since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Russia’s attacks on electricity and heating infrastructure present enormous challenges for Ukraine’s war-stricken population, especially during the cold winter months. In this context, Energikontor Syd, in cooperation with the Stockholm Environment Institute in Tallinn and a municipality in southwestern Ukraine, is running a project aimed at strengthening the municipality’s energy system resilience.

Project leaders Lena Eckerberg and Karoline Alvånger from Energikontor Syd explain that the initial application to the Swedish Institute focused on smart meters and advanced solutions. However, over time, it became evident that such initiatives could not be the priority for the Ukrainian partner under the current wartime conditions:
“They need to ensure electricity and heat first, skipping advanced solutions in favour of finding cost-effective ways to keep the power supply running.”

The war influences the project in other ways:
“Previously, the plan was to model the municipality’s electricity system, but this plan was abandoned because presenting an overview of the grid would expose vulnerabilities during an active war. Instead, we now aim to examine a combined heat and power plant using entirely fictional data,” says Karoline Alvånger.

The project partners have distinct roles:
“The Estonian partner brings technical expertise in modelling technical systems, while we at Energikontor Syd manage the project administratively and ensure its results are disseminated. The plan is still for the Estonian partner to model a robust system, but based on a fictional model since the actual data is confidential. The outcome will allow the Ukrainian municipality to develop their own models for real facilities, identifying weaknesses and addressing them,” explains Karoline Alvånger.

As currently structured, the project provides the Ukrainian municipality with tools to continue working independently:
“They receive a technical evaluation at the macro level of different methods for producing heat in a decentralised system to meet the heating needs of a selected site. Based on this, they can review their heating infrastructure, including how district heating is distributed and the piping system. In a centralised system, a single attack can eliminate all heat distribution. Instead, they are modelling a decentralised network, examining how, for example, they can bypass damaged pipes if Russia attacks a specific point,” says Karoline Alvånger.

The project leaders share that what may have affected them most during the project was when a planned meeting was cancelled due to an air raid alarm in the Ukrainian municipality:
“It is constantly on the news, but this experience made it tangible in a new way—how deeply our project partner is affected.”

Both Karoline Alvånger and Lena Eckerberg believe the project could be valuable for others:
“We hope the project’s report will interest other Ukrainian municipalities in similar situations. It is also a valuable lesson for actors in Sweden and the region, showcasing how Ukraine tackles preparedness issues in practice and what conclusions can be drawn about building and adapting energy systems to make them more resilient.”