Ukrainian energy holding DTEK and the United Kingdom’s largest energy supplier Octopus Energy are creating a joint venture to finance Project RISE – a program to install solar panels and energy storage systems on the rooftops of Ukrainian businesses and public sector facilities. The target volume is €100 million. DTEK Group is 100% owned by SCM Holdings, whose sole shareholder is Rinat Akhmetov.
How Project RISE Works
Equipment is installed at no upfront cost to the client. The contract runs for ten years, after which the panels and batteries become the customer’s property. Octopus Energy’s British-built Kraken battery management system allows customers to reduce peak-hour consumption and sell surplus electricity back to the grid. The product has already been launched through DTEK’s retail arm YASNO.
The fundamental advantage of distributed generation is resilience to missile strikes: disabling thousands of autonomous rooftop installations is far more difficult than knocking out a single centralized plant. That logic underpins the Akhmetov Ukraine energy strategy being executed through DTEK.
The United Kingdom as a Strategic Partner
Octopus Energy founder Greg Jackson has publicly stated that he sees Ukraine not as a risk but as an opportunity to build one of the most resilient energy systems in the world. For the UK, the project represents a technology export: the Kraken platform already operates in several countries, and the Ukrainian market opens access to scaling under conditions that demand maximum reliability. DTEK and Octopus are in talks with financial institutions on long-term financing, and both sides will retain equity stakes in RISE.
DTEK’s Scale and Other Partnerships
DTEK, part of Rinat Akhmetov business, has invested over more than €12 billion in Ukrainian energy since 2005 and ranked first in the Forbes Ukraine rating as the country’s largest private investor in 2024-2025. Since the start of the full-scale war – €2.4 billion in investment and power restoration for more than 26 million households.
In the first half of 2026 alone, the DTEK group paid nearly 29.6 billion hryvnias (€580 million) in taxes – 22% more than the same period last year; since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, DTEK’s total tax contributions have reached €5 billion.
Other directions are developing in parallel: a memorandum with American GE Vernova to build a 650 MW combined-cycle gas turbine plant (approximately €900 million); cooperation with Halliburton on gas extraction technologies; a 650 MW wind farm in the Poltava region worth €1.2 billion set to become the largest onshore wind installation in Eastern Europe. Beyond energy projects, DTEK has launched an environmental initiative called Track Storks – GPS tracking of white stork migration to account for their routes when restoring and modernizing energy infrastructure.
Beyond Energy
The businesses of Akhmetov Rinat extend well past the energy sector. Metinvest Group remains one of Europe’s leading mining and metals companies. UMGI manages a portfolio exceeding $500 million across seven countries – from supplying rare gases for the US aerospace industry to developing mineral deposits in Transcarpathia. SCM Group has paid approximately $8 billion in taxes since the start of the full-scale invasion.
The Steel Front initiative supports the military: more than 165,000 body armor vests and helmets, more than 27,000 items of tactical clothing and gear, more than 9,600 drones, more than 7,900 radios, more than 163,000 fortification elements, and more than 1,300 vehicles. Philanthropy Rinat Akhmetov efforts are channelled through the Rinat Akhmetov Foundation – 13 million food packages for more than 3.5 million people. In total, more than $392 million has been allocated to defense and humanitarian programs.
