Who will remain with light? The government is changing the rules and demanding urgent street lighting shutdowns

Ukraine is entering a period of severe energy conservation amid new threats to infrastructure and winter loads on the grid. The authorities are urgently changing their approach to city lighting, redistributing priorities and discussing special status for residential buildings with electric heating. Find out what they want to change

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The Ukrainian government is urgently reviewing its approach to energy consumption amid intensified attacks on energy infrastructure. The authorities are simultaneously demanding immediate energy savings and considering granting special status to residential buildings with electric heating.

Urgent savings

Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko said that all regional military administrations and the Kyiv city military administration had been ordered to reduce electricity consumption within 24 hours. She announced this on her Telegram channel.

This primarily concerns restrictions on outdoor lighting of buildings and territories, advertising lighting and so-called excessive street lighting. In this way, the authorities hope to quickly reduce the load on the power system without directly cutting off residential buildings.

Houses with electric heating — in the zone of special attention

At the same time, in Kyiv and the Kyiv region, an analysis of the state of heat, electricity, gas and water supply to residential buildings will be carried out within 24 hours. Special attention will be paid to houses with electric heating that remain without electricity.

For residents who are in the most difficult situation, the government promises backup power sources, water delivery and other emergency support. Moreover, the Cabinet of Ministers is considering the possibility of classifying residential buildings with electric heating as critical infrastructure in order to ensure constant heating for them during the winter period.

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Distributed generation instead of waiting

Another direction is the accelerated development of distributed generation. The Ministry of Energy, the Ministry of Development and the State Energy Regulatory Commission have been instructed to simplify as much as possible the connection of cogeneration plants, modular boiler rooms, gas turbine and gas piston plants.

The National Commission for State Regulation in Energy and Utilities has been recommended to reduce the timeframes and simplify the requirements for project documentation, technical conditions and connection procedures. The regulator must report the results to the government within a week.

Why are streets being cut off?

Back in December, local authorities reported that Kyiv's outdoor lighting system was operating in energy-saving mode: the lights were not turned off completely, but their intensity was reduced to 30% in certain areas. At the same time, according to Kyivmiskosvitlo, street lighting accounts for less than 1% of the capital's total energy consumption.

Despite this, street and decorative lighting is considered the fastest reserve for emergency savings — unlike residential buildings, hospitals, and life support facilities.

Critical infrastructure: lists have already changed

In December, the government revised the list of critical infrastructure facilities. At that time, 911 MW of electrical power was released from the closed lists and returned to the general network. It was expected that this would reduce the duration of power outages for the population and industry.

Two categories were excluded from the lists: consumers with a capacity of less than 100 kW and facilities to which other subscribers are connected. However, the review did not apply to key hospitals, life support facilities and defence industry enterprises.

Russia is trying to completely destroy Ukraine's energy sector

Since the start of the full-scale invasion in February 2022, Russia has been systematically striking Ukraine's energy infrastructure. Since autumn 2025, the intensity of attacks on energy facilities has increased again, forcing the authorities to act in emergency mode.

In fact, the country is entering winter with a new approach to energy consumption: minimal street lighting in order to keep homes warm. It will soon become clear which categories of housing will be given priority and whether homes with electric heating will indeed be classified as critical infrastructure.

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Reminder! Large-scale power outages are forcing the Ukrainian authorities to seek unconventional solutions to support people and businesses. Against the backdrop of the energy emergency, the possibility of temporarily changing safety rules in certain regions of the country is being considered. Find out which cities may lift the curfew, what conditions are necessary for this, and what it means for residents and entrepreneurs.

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