Russian news agency RIA Novosti reports that Ukraine’s government plans to privatise the country’s four major heat and power plants to reduce Ukraine’s energy dependence on expensive Russian natural gas by converting the plants to modern coal-burning technologies.
The executive order instructed national energy company Naftogaz to transfer wholly state-owned share packages in the Dneprodzerzhinsk, Kherson and Odessa Heat and Power Plants and the Kharkov Heat and Power Plant No. 5 to the State Property Fund for further privatisation.
In April, the Ukrainian parliament adopted a law lifting a ban on the privatisation of the country’s 13 largest heat and power plants ahead of their subsequent transfer for lease or operation under a concession agreement. The bill was initiated by the Energy and Fuel Ministry, which believes the transfer of these plants under concession agreements will help attract investment to finance their modernisation and their conversion to coal-burning technologies.
