₴14.4 million is set to be spent on street lighting in Mykolaiv over the next three months

Street lighting in Mykolaiv during the winter months, photo from open sources

Street lighting in Mykolaiv over a three-month period in 2026 could cost the city around 14.4 million hryvnias.

This is according to data from the ProZorro e-procurement system, as reported by NikVesti.

The contracting authority is the municipal enterprise «Self-Financing Construction Mechanisation Division» of Mykolaiv City Council. The enterprise has announced two tenders for the procurement of electricity: one for the Korabelnyi district and one for the rest of the city.

For the Korabelnyi district, the plan is to purchase 395,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity. The estimated cost is 2.9 million hryvnias. The electricity is to be supplied by 31 December 2026.

A further 1.57 million kilowatt-hours are planned to be procured for outdoor lighting in the rest of Mykolaiv — excluding Varvarivka, Velyka Korenykha and Mala Korenykha. The estimated cost of this procurement is 11.5 million hryvnias. Supplies are also due to continue until the end of December.

Thus, through these two procurements, the city plans to purchase almost 2 million kilowatt-hours of electricity for street lighting.

However, the final price of the electricity will depend on its cost on the ‘day-ahead’ market and the transmission tariff, as stated in the tender documentation. Electricity distribution services are not included in this procurement — they will be paid for separately.

Street lighting in Mykolaiv

Street lighting in Mykolaiv was switched off at the start of the full-scale invasion. It was only restored in January 2023.

Following this, Dmytro Bezdolnyi, director of the Mykolaiv Department of Housing and Communal Services, explained why some areas of the city lacked street lighting.

In May 2023, the city announced a tender for the procurement of LED street lights and lighting fittings worth 47.6 million hryvnias. Over the course of a year, more than 4,000 energy-efficient LED lights of various wattages were installed in Mykolaiv. The city’s street lighting cost more than 46.2 million hryvnias throughout 2023.

In May 2024, the mayor of Mykolaiv, Oleksandr Sienkevych, outlined plans to completely replace the city’s lighting with LED technology in order to minimise electricity consumption.

It is worth noting that as early as the start of 2024, the mayor stated that of the 160 million hryvnias required for street lighting in Mykolaiv, the budget had allocated only 80 million for half a year. At present, thanks to the savings made, the city has sufficient funds.

In October 2025, the mayor promised to find out how much the city spends on street lighting after midnight. A month later, it emerged that an extra hour of lighting costs the budget approximately 10 million hryvnias a year.

To reduce the strain on the grid, street lighting was switched off in Mykolaiv as early as December 2025. The lights are switched off in courtyards and on minor streets, whilst main roads, accident-prone sections, junctions, bridges, passing places and flyovers remain lit for safety reasons.