The head of the Verkhovna Rada's energy committee, Andriy Gerus, has appealed to the government demanding the dismissal of the management of "Energoatom-Trading" and the cancellation of the results of the October electricity sale auction. According to the MP's estimates, the state company may have missed out on about 1.8 billion UAH due to selling significant volumes of electricity on the eve of a sharp increase in market prices.
This is stated in Gerus's letter to Prime Minister Serhiy Koretskyi, which was published by "Ekonomichna Pravda" on November 6.
Gerus believes that certain market participants may have received advance information about decisions that could affect electricity prices, while other buyers learned about the changes only after the auction ended.
According to the MP, on October 26 a closed meeting was held at the Ministry of Energy with the participation of representatives of state generation, "Ukrenergo", NEURC, and the private trader "D.Trading", which is part of the DTEK group.
At the meeting, as Gerus claims, they discussed raising prices in "Energoatom's" bids on the "day-ahead" market (DAM), as well as the opening of daily electricity exports. Representatives of other private buyers and state traders were not present at the meeting.
The next day, "Energoatom" held an auction for the supply of electricity for November 1-10. The company sold 2,000 MW of base load, totaling 480,000 MWh, at a weighted average price of 5,313.78 UAH/MWh excluding VAT.
Among the 69 buyers was "D.Trading", which purchased 315 MW - about 16% of the total volume. According to Gerus, this is much more than the approximately 45 MW the trader bought for the previous ten-day period.
Already on October 28, the base load price index on the DAM rose by 82.8% compared to the previous day. Gerus links this dynamic, in part, to the change in the state company's trading strategy.
At the same time, the MP emphasizes that "Energoatom's" auction ended at approximately 13:02 on October 27, while the results of DAM trading, which reflected the price increase, became publicly available only around 13:40.
In his opinion, such a sequence could have provided an informational advantage to the participants of the closed meeting. However, these circumstances alone do not prove the use of insider information or the existence of collusion.
Where the estimate of 1.8 billion UAH in losses came from
Gerus compared the price of the October auction with the average DAM price for November 1-6, which, according to his data, was 9,098.32 UAH/MWh.
The difference is 3,784.54 UAH per MWh. Multiplying this by the entire auction volume gives about 1.82 billion UAH of potentially lost revenue.
However, this calculation does not equate to established financial losses. First, different market segments are compared: sale of electricity under a forward contract and short-term DAM prices. Additionally, the average price for only the first six days of November is applied to the entire ten-day supply volume.
To determine actual losses, it is necessary to establish at what prices and in what volumes "Energoatom" could have sold electricity under a different trading strategy. No such confirmed calculations are provided in the letter.
Also, the estimate of 1.8 billion UAH applies to all auction volumes purchased by 69 companies, not only to the electricity bought by "D.Trading".
Previous scandal: compensation from DTEK and the regulator's conclusion
Gerus compares the October events with the situation in January 2026, when "Energoatom" also sold significant volumes of electricity before a sharp increase in market prices.
Then, after public criticism of the auction, "D.Trading" initiated early termination of the contract with "Energoatom".
In its statement, the trader emphasized that it had participated in an open auction on general terms and acted in accordance with the law. The company explained its decision to terminate the contract by the public discussion regarding the circumstances of the auction and the desire to protect its business reputation.
On January 26, "D.Trading" transferred 164 million UAH of voluntary compensation to "Energoatom" for the difference between the contract and market price of electricity for the period of actual supply. This payment did not imply an admission of a legal violation by the company.
Meanwhile, in May, an important result of an official review of the previous auction emerged.
On May 27, NEURC reported that, based on the analysis of "Energoatom's" trades of January 14, it found no signs of unlawful use of insider information.
The regulator conducted the analysis with expert and consulting support from the Energy Community Secretariat. According to NEURC, the results of the assessment of trading volumes and participants' behavior did not indicate the presence of coordinated or pre-agreed actions.
The conclusion applies specifically to the January auction and is not an assessment of the October operations. However, it indicates that Gerus's previous suspicions regarding the use of insider information were not confirmed by the results of the regulator's review at that time.
Who should investigate the new suspicions
In Ukraine, rules on integrity and transparency of the wholesale energy market are in force, introduced in accordance with the European REMIT regulation. They provide for control over the use of insider information and market price manipulation.
On November 4, NEURC reminded market participants about the mandatory submission of data on wholesale operations, including executed and unexecuted trading orders.
Thus, to examine the situation with the October 27 auction, the regulator has a legally provided mechanism for analyzing trading operations. At the same time, the mere increase in a single trader's purchases is not proof of wrongdoing.
In his letter, Gerus asks the Prime Minister to dismiss the responsible management of "Energoatom-Trading", terminate contracts based on the auction results, and conduct an investigation into the outlined circumstances.
No public response from "Energoatom" or "D.Trading" specifically to the new claims regarding the October auction was found in the materials reviewed at the time of preparation. DTEK's previously stated position concerns the January trades and cannot automatically be considered a response to Gerus's current appeal.
Based on materials from: Ekonomichna Pravda - letter from Andriy Gerus, NEURC - results of the review of the January auction, position of "D.Trading"
