First international arbitration launched by renewable investor against Ukraine

Modus Energy International, part of Lithuanian Modus Group, launched international arbitration against Ukraine under the Energy Charter Treaty. The company claims that Ukraine has violated ECT by reducing relevant feed-in tariffs for solar power plants by 15% from 1 August 2020 under the Law 810-IX.

Ministry of Justice received respective request for arbitration on 23 March 2021. The amount of damages is at least EUR 11.5 million.

Modus operates 3 solar power plants in Ukraine (Solar Zalukva, Bolokhiv Solar Park-1, Bolokhiv Solar Park-2) with total installed capacity exceeding 46 MW. All SPPs were commissioned and received feed-in tariff in 2019.

The Cabinet of Ministers is expected to allow today the Ministry of Justice to apply simplified procedure for hiring legal counsels to represent Ukraine in arbitration.

According to our knowledge, the number of trigger letters submitted by renewable investors against Ukraine is in 5-10 range, while Modus is the first investor that launched full scale arbitration process.