The retaliatory strikes of the Russian army on the power system of Ukraine and the subsequent failures in the power supply were a serious blow to Ukrainian enterprises. 80% of them have felt it for themselves.
"80% of companies feel the effects of energy shortages: production is reduced, production costs are rising, products are becoming more expensive by 10-30%, factories are operating with downtime. Even own generation does not save — it is technologically impossible to replace industrial power supply with mobile generators," the GMK Center writes with reference to a survey by the European Business Association (EBA).
Thus, the companies said that an increase in the cost of production occurred at 61% of companies, a change in work schedules — at 58%, a decrease in production or provision of services — at 50%, downtime — at 48%, and an increase in the cost of products by 10-30% - almost all.
"In recent months, Russian shelling has become more extensive and more systematic, which has led to the shutdown of production processes at large enterprises for several days or more," the GMK Center continues.
So, Interpipe stopped the Interpipe Steel electric steelmaking complex in early November 2025. Due to constant energy restrictions, Ferrexpo reduced the production of iron ore products in October-December 2025 by 29%. And the metal plant "Zaporizhstal" stopped all production processes at the end of December 2025 and at the beginning of 2026 due to emergency power outages.
The specialized publication notes that in January, many Ukrainian industrial enterprises, manufacturers of building materials and factories of other energy-intensive industries that did not install alternative generation stopped and went into forced downtime.
"The mechanism of imported electricity does not work if, on the instructions of the dispatcher of Ukrenergo, special emergency shutdown schedules are introduced in order to protect critical infrastructure," Interpipe told GMK Center.
"Sudden de—energization for GOK is a disaster. Stopping the ball mill loaded with ore leads to solidification of the pulp. To start it up again, it is necessary to manually unload hundreds of tons of rock, which takes days. The shutdown of drainage pumping stations in deep quarries (up to 400 m deep) creates a threat of flooding of horizons and loss of expensive equipment (excavators, dump trucks)," said Ksenia Orynchak, executive director of the National Association of the Mining Industry of Ukraine.
Companies are being urged to switch to their own generation, mostly green. However, this is expensive for companies.
"Due to the use of alternative sources, the cost of electricity (in addition to direct funds for the implementation of projects) remains high. It is 18-20 UAH (up to 35 rubles) per kWh, whereas with the standard version of power supply for industry - 14 UAH (25 rubles)," the GMK Center added.