Energy Market Department proposes not raising price caps before winter
NEURC's Energy Market Department proposes keeping the maximum price caps on the day-ahead market (DAM), intraday market (IDM) and balancing market at their current levels going into winter. The department plans to bring the proposal to a NEURC meeting following the open consultation on the draft resolution on price caps held on 1 October 2026.
In particular, it proposes setting the following maximum caps from 1 November 2026: UAH 15,000/MWh for all hours on the DAM and IDM, and UAH 17,000/MWh for all hours on the balancing market. This is not yet a final decision: the draft resolution must still be put before the Commission.
The department explained its position partly by the situation on neighbouring markets. According to Illia Sidorov, director of NEURC's Energy Market Department, forward electricity prices for October, November and Q4 2026 are currently within the existing price limits.
Participants called for higher caps
Several participants in the consultation argued for raising the caps ahead of winter, citing the risk of electricity shortages, more expensive gas, and the need to create economic conditions for imports and gas-fired generation.
Oleksandr Rohozin, president of the NGO First Energy Council, proposed raising the caps on the DAM, IDM and balancing market by at least 25%. In his view, the current limits mostly did not restrain price formation over the summer, but the situation changes before winter. He named several factors: higher gas and electricity costs in European markets, the risk of new damage to the power system from attacks, possible capacity restrictions, and Ukraine's need for imports. In his words, price caps should not constrain those imports.
Olha Tahiieva, head of the Energy Union NGO, proposed an upper cap of UAH 30,000/MWh. She believes that in a difficult winter the priority must be ensuring sufficient electricity from both domestic generation and imports, and that such a level would provide the economics for gas-piston generation and imports to operate.
Adrian Prokip, head of energy programmes at the Ukrainian Future Institute, also backed an increase of at least 25% across all market segments. He recalled the experience of the previous review: when there were no economic grounds for higher prices, the market price never reached the cap, whereas in periods of scarcity and high European prices, higher caps helped balance the situation and let more expensive generation operate. Prokip also disagreed that import via the bilateral contracts market fully solves the problem: with unpredictable shortages after Russian attacks, import via the DAM allows a faster response, while long-term bilateral trade is less flexible.
No minimum price caps
During the consultation, NEURC said the provision on minimum price caps will be removed from the draft decision. Law No. 4963-IX on amendments to certain legislative acts of Ukraine on implementing EU legislation in the field of renewable energy took effect on 1 October 2026 and removed the regulator's authority to set minimum price limits.
As Sidorov put it, since the law takes this authority away from the regulator, the issue will not be discussed, and the draft decision submitted to the Commission will not contain such a provision.