What Ukraine's energy system can teach the world about resilience: DTEK CSO Jeff Oatham for the World Economic Forum

As global grids struggle to keep pace with rising demand, DTEK Chief Sustainability Officer Jeff Oatham draws on four years of DTEK’s experience keeping Ukraine's lights on under attack — and what it means for energy planning everywhere else. Writing for the World Economic Forum, he argues resilience needs a rethink. 

Since russia's full-scale invasion, nearly two-thirds of Ukraine's dispatchable generation capacity has been occupied, damaged or destroyed. Between November 2025 and March 2026 alone, the grid faced over 700 missiles and almost 19,000 drones. 

From this, Oatham draws lessons with global relevance: 

•  Decentralisation reduces risk. Spreading capacity across smaller, distributed assets limits the damage a single strike can do.
•  Speed of recovery has a value that planning often doesn’t take into account. DTEK and Fluence built 200 MW of battery storage in six months – a third of the usual timeline. 
• Security and decarbonisation are converging. Renewables and storage are increasingly part of the security architecture, not just the climate one. 
• Resilience has to be investable. Ukraine's regional resilience plans are estimated at €5.3 billion – far beyond what local budgets can cover. Governments and investors need better ways to value resilience before infrastructure is built. 

Read Jeff Oatham's full piece on the World Economic Forum website.