How Odesa is preparing infrastructure for blackouts: Intent.Insight analyzed the world's experience

Odesa is exploring ways to adapt urban infrastructure to emergency power supply conditions. Experts discussed international experience and the first steps to increase the resilience of cities today.

Today's episode of Intent.Insight is dedicated to the prospects of urban life support systems in wartime.

The guests of the show are Roman Zinchenko, founder of the Greencubator energy innovation network, and Serhiy Leivikov, a specialist in life support systems.

The show will discuss whether there are examples of cities in Ukraine and around the world that are already rebuilding their energy systems to take into account the war, and what can be applied now.

The experts will also try to answer key questions: whether the crisis can become a chance, whether the war will change the approach to how cities will look like after it, and what needs to be done now, without waiting for its end.

Viewers can join the discussion by asking their questions during the broadcast or leaving them in the comments. The broadcast will start at 17:00 on Intent's YouTube channel and Facebook page.

At the same time, the program to protect key power substations in the southern regions of Ukraine from Russian shelling has actually failed in two years. In 2023-2024, only two of the twenty contracts concluded by Ukrenergo and the State Agency for Infrastructure Restoration were fulfilled in Odesa and Mykolaiv regions.

In Odesa and Mykolaiv regions, the projects envisaged strengthening six power substations. The Mykolaiv agency signed two closed agreements worth UAH 1.9 billion and UAH 243 million, while the Odesa agency signed four contracts worth more than UAH 5 billion. However, as of October 2025, none of the contracts have been implemented, and the deadlines have been repeatedly postponed.

Recently, Odesa hosted a discussion of the Green and White Papers, analytical materials that will form the basis of a new city development strategy for 2026-2027. Experts interviewed by Intent.Insight noted that many Odesa residents underestimate the importance of this process.

At the same time, the current version of the document contains almost no security solutions, no programs for building shelters, and does not take into account the needs of internally displaced persons and the transformation of the city's economy.

Анна Бальчінос