International engineering and manufacturing company RSE has opened the Energy Resilience Lab at Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute (KPI) — a unique training and research facility dedicated to strengthening Ukraine’s energy resilience. The laboratory will enable energy engineering students from across Ukraine to work with modern energy equipment, explore distributed generation technologies, and gain hands-on experience with solutions already deployed at real-world energy facilities implemented by RSE throughout the country.
RSE is an international engineering and manufacturing company that develops and delivers integrated energy solutions for industrial facilities and critical infrastructure. Its portfolio includes cogeneration systems based on MWM gas engines, FG Wilson diesel power solutions, Olympian generator sets — a Caterpillar brand represented by RSE in the US market — as well as RSE’s own industrial heat pumps and chillers. The company also integrates battery energy storage systems (BESS) and various power generation, heating, and cooling technologies into unified energy systems. The technologies and engineering solutions RSE deploys in real-world energy projects form the foundation of the Energy Resilience Lab’s practical training programme.
“Today, Ukraine needs not only new energy capacity, but also engineers who know how to operate and manage it. We wanted to create a place where students would work not with abstract models, but with the technologies and challenges that energy professionals are already dealing with at real facilities today,” said Andrii Grinenko, Founder of RSE.
“It is essential to build the educational process in a way that allows future specialists to train on the latest-generation equipment and become immersed in the realities of the industry from the very beginning — engaging with industry professionals and working on practical rather than purely theoretical challenges. The Energy Resilience Lab provides exactly this opportunity. In just a few years, the students who begin their training at the laboratory will be contributing to the development of Ukraine’s energy sector, where distributed generation will play an increasingly important role,” commented Anatolii Melnychenko, Rector of Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute.
For the laboratory, RSE together with MWM (Caterpillar Energy Solutions) provided modern training equipment, including a 600 kW MWM TCG 2016 generator set, desktop automation simulators, software-based engine operation simulators, and an advanced simulator for synchronising a cogeneration unit with the power grid.
The equipment allows students to gain practical experience with the key principles behind modern energy systems, including the operation and configuration of generating equipment, automation, simulation of different operating modes, as well as grid synchronisation and interaction between generating units and the electrical network.
Similar training equipment is used at the MWM Training Centre in Mannheim, Germany, where energy professionals from around the world undergo technical training and certification.
An important part of the project was the preparation of KPI teaching staff. In autumn 2025, ten lecturers who will work with students at the Energy Resilience Lab completed specialised technical training at the MWM Training Centre in Mannheim. Upon returning to Kyiv, they adapted the knowledge and expertise gained during the programme to the Ukrainian academic curriculum.
With the support of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), which also joined the project through the Energy Innovation Hub operating at Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute, the programme was further expanded and developed into the academic course “Cogeneration Systems for Resilient Energy Supply.” As part of the course, energy engineering students will be able to combine theoretical studies with hands-on training using the Energy Resilience Lab’s equipment.
The model has been designed with future scalability in mind. The academic course can be introduced at other universities and technical colleges, while the Energy Resilience Lab can serve as a practical training facility for students from across Ukraine.
To establish the Energy Resilience Lab, RSE developed a modern two-level training facility with a total area of 257 m². The laboratory can accommodate up to 20 energy engineering students at a time and combines dedicated teaching areas with spaces for hands-on work with energy equipment.
During the war, energy autonomy has become critically important for Ukrainian cities and communities. The laboratory was therefore designed as a place where future energy professionals can develop practical skills in working with modern distributed and backup power systems. The Energy Resilience Lab’s technological and educational infrastructure will continue to expand and evolve in line with advances in energy technologies and the emergence of new engineering solutions.
The Energy Resilience Lab will also serve as a platform for engineering research and development. Its model brings together education, research, industry, and municipalities — from training the next generation of engineers and exploring emerging technologies to deploying these solutions in communities and at critical infrastructure facilities.
The project aims to establish the Energy Resilience Lab as one of Ukraine’s leading centres for training specialists in cogeneration, distributed generation, and autonomous energy systems.
