Throughout the autumn of 2025, Russian strikes on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure in have become systematic and highly targeted: the attacks focus primarily on substations, heat generation facilities and high-voltage lines that ensure power output. In major cities this has already lead to prolonged outages, drops in pressure within district heating systems, and disruptions to water supply. Ukrenergo CEO Vitalii Zaichenko describes this strategy as “scorched earth”— strikes designed to disable facilities entirely rather than temporarily.
Against this backdrop of systemic attacks, experts increasingly emphasise the need for a network of decentralised generation sources capable of operating independently of the transmission grid. These are primarily mobile and modular cogeneration units that create local points of supply—so-called ‘energy islands’ for hospitals, water utilities, heating sites and industrial facilities.
Sviatoslav Pavliuk, executive director of the Association of Energy Efficient Cities of Ukraine, notes that in situations of network damage it is cogeneration that can reliably support the operation of large pumps and heating systems—something diesel generators cannot achieve. Analyst Hennadii Riabtsev adds that flexible sources of generation have ceased to be a “reserve” and have become an element of energy defence.
Ukraine has effectively become a testing ground for the rapid deployment of such solutions. Interest in industrial cogeneration modules and microgeneration is growing beyond Ukraine—European regulators are studying the country’s experience as a model of resilience for the EU’s future energy policy.
How the technology works
Cogeneration is the simultaneous production of electricity and heat from a single fuel source. Unlike traditional generation—where heat is wasted—cogeneration systems capture this thermal energy through heat exchangers and reuse it for district heating, hot water or industrial processes.
As a result, total efficiency reaches 85–92 per cent, compared to less than 40 per cent at conventional power plants.
A gas engine or turbine produces electricity while the excess heat is returned to the system. Modern systems can work either in parallel with the grid or autonomously—in so-called ‘island mode’. The latter enables critical facilities to keep operating even during a complete blackout.
Why cogeneration became critical
During Russia’s mass attacks, localised network ruptures often isolate districts regardless of available generation. This is why cogeneration modules have become the backbone for creating autonomous supply points for hospitals, water utilities, heating facilities and industrial plants.
According to Ukrainian government data, as of November 2025 the district heating sector already operates 182 cogeneration units (83 in full operation) with a combined capacity of 147.3 MW, along with 239 block-modular boilers (about 635 MW). Through international aid programmes, communities have received more than 90 modular units (50+ MW). Kyiv and Cherkasy regions are leading in the deployment of local generation.
Analytical assessments by the Ministry of Energy indicate that, in the medium term, Ukraine requires about 2.2 GW of new flexible generation and around 1.5 GW of storage systems to stabilise the grid. This is the minimum needed to provide flexibility between peak loads, emergency conditions, and rapid recovery after attacks.
However, the International Energy Agency (IEA) forecasts a significantly larger structural deficit— p to 6 GW during peak winter periods. This reflects not only the need for flexible sources but the cumulative loss of generating capacity due to destroyed TPPs and CHPs that cannot be quickly restored.
In these conditions, cogeneration does not replace large power plants but covers the most vulnerable segment of the deficit—local and technological. Modular systems can restore the operation of critical facilities within days, creating microgrids where transmission lines have been destroyed. Thus, the network of mobile and containerised sources becomes not an alternative to large plants but essential infrastructure that allows the country to maintain basic services under attack.
Market architecture
Ukraine’s cogeneration sector in 2025 has become one of the most dynamic parts of the energy system. Its growth is driven not by individual firms but by an entire ecosystem of players—integrators, developers, engine manufacturers and international donors working together to close the deficit of flexible generation.
Developers and producers of local energy facilities are companies that create and run their own stations on biogas, biomass or gas, supplying communities with heat and electricity within energy islands. Examples include Clear Energy, Ekotechnika and multiple regional bioenergy firms.
Then there are global technology suppliers (OEMs). Ukraine relies on engines and turbines from global manufacturers—MWM/Caterpillar, Jenbacher, Wärtsilä, Siemens Energy. Their platforms provide high efficiency, low emissions and the ability to work autonomously. Based on these OEM engines, integrators assemble backup complexes for heating, water utilities and industry.
Large-scale deployment of mobile generation meanwhile would be impossible without donor support. Through USAID, EBRD, NEFCO, the EU Energy Support Fund, and assistance from Denmark, Germany and Sweden, more than 200 generation modules—from 250 kW to 2.5 MW—have been imported over the past two years.
Integrators and EPC companies complete the ecosystem. Ukrainian engineering teams have become central to the development of mobile generation. They adapt global OEM platforms to wartime conditions, design backup schemes, and integrate modules into district heating, hospitals, water utilities and critical facilities. Key players include KTS Engineering, Volts Energy, Energy Save, Interautomatika, TEDOM-Ukraine, BlastCat (DTEK Innovation Hub).
RSE
A distinct place in this group belongs to RSE. Unlike classic integrators, RSE combines EPC capability with a full engineering-production cycle: it designs modular systems, containerises MWM/Caterpillar engines, and builds trigeneration complexes and industrial heat pumps. In terms of scale and installation speed, RSE has become one of the strongest integrators in Ukraine and Central-Eastern Europe.
RSE is an engineering-production company with an office and manufacturing facility in Brno, Czechia, founded in 2023. The company specialises in modular cogeneration and trigeneration solutions in a fully containerised format, providing uninterrupted power not only for business but also for critical facilities under extreme conditions.
The company’s fundamental principle is full factory assembly. All modules are built, tested and configured at the plant, arriving to customers as ready-to-operate systems. This reduces installation time to 72 hours.
RSE’s early installations in 2023—at sites in Kharkiv, Kyiv and Dnipro—defined the company’s engineering philosophy: reinforced containers, duplicated cable routes, enhanced protection against shrapnel damage, expanded safety protocols and stable off-grid operation. These wartime requirements shaped today’s design standards.
RSE modules operate in three modes: parallel, autonomous and island. Island mode makes it possible to create microgrids for hospitals, water utilities, heating sites, municipal enterprises and industry—where restoring transmission lines may take days or weeks. This approach is now in demand not only in Ukraine but also in Poland, Czechia and Slovakia.
A key element of RSE’s technology are its proprietary oil-free turbo-modules running on propane — universal modules that integrate with any cogeneration system. They use the engine’s waste heat to raise the temperature of the heat carrier, bringing overall system efficiency above 95 per cent in low-temperature networks.
In November 2025, the company presented its flagship trigeneration complex—the Modular Power Plant—at the MWM Energy Days in Mannheim. Based on the MWM TCG 2032 engine with a capacity of 4.5 MW, the unit can produce electricity, heat and cooling, start without a grid, and create autonomous energy islands for municipal and industrial systems.
Ukrainian solutions for the European market
Ukrainian modular technologies, developed under wartime pressure, offer Europe a practical model of infrastructural resilience—suited to cyberattacks, energy blackmail and network instability. The European system, dependent on large generation nodes and long transmission corridors, is increasingly showing its vulnerabilities.
Ukraine’s practice of deploying modules not in months but in days is already being studied in European civil-protection planning. ENTSO-E and national regulators are analysing how to incorporate this experience into response standards.
Ultimately, Ukraine’s experience is shaping a new logic for European energy security: multiple sources, autonomy, rapid resilience and preparedness for crisis scenarios are parameters that will determine the sustainability of European infrastructure for decades to come.
