The National Security and Defence Council of Ukraine and TETRA TECH signed a Memorandum of Understanding to respond to challenges related to russian aggression

On Monday, 15 January, the National Security and Defence Council of Ukraine and the American company TETRA TECH signed a Memorandum of Understanding. The document defines the mutual interest of the parties in an effective response to the challenges posed by Russian aggression.

The document was signed by Andrii Ziuz, Head of the NSDC Office, and Thomas Reilly, President of Global Development, Government Services Group, TETRA TECH.

According to the Memorandum, the parties plan to cooperate in areas affected by the war and related to the reconstruction of Ukraine, including the liberated territories. In particular, additional funding is planned to be allocated this year to ensure Ukraine’s energy security.

“Decentralisation of the energy sector is a common task for the government, local communities and consumers. It is important as it will help reduce the vulnerability of the energy system to shelling. We are also interested in developing an approach that will provide us with the access to consumption data at the level of each specific community”, – said Andrii Ziuz, Head of the NSDC Office.

He emphasised the need for decentralisation of Ukraine's energy sector and added that this matter is under the control of President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

For his part, Llyr Rowlands, President of the USAID ESP TETRA TECH Unit, which implements the Energy Security Project in Ukraine, noted that the introduction of decentralisation in the energy sector will allow each community to have a more developed smart grid system and move towards compliance with the European standards.

In the course of the signing of the Memorandum, the participants focused on the matter of energy security in the country and discussed further joint work within the European Green Deal initiative. This is an initiative of the European Commission aimed at making the European continent climate neutral by 2050.

In this context, Andrii Ziuz presented the SOTA information and analytical system, in particular, the energy security module.

For reference: TETRA TECH, a leading global consulting and engineering company, is implementing five projects in Ukraine. These include energy security, humanitarian demining, auditing the effective use of funds allocated by the US government to Ukraine, supporting anti-corruption initiatives, and restoring critical infrastructure.

Smart grid is an electricity network that includes a variety of operational and energy-saving measures, including smart meters, smart consumers, renewable energy sources, and energy efficiency resources.