Energy management implementation in the Kharkiv Oblast’s AHs opens new opportunities

The problem of saving and efficient use of energy resources remains one of the most relevant for Ukraine. Experts estimate that Ukrainians consume three to four times more energy than European countries. The Kharkiv Oblast has been successfully implementing energy-efficient measures for several years, both applying the European experience, and introducing their own developments. Several oblast programmes and international projects are successfully operating here.

 

The Governmental Courrier has already featured how the Veselivska AH began fighting against heat and electricity losses, focusing on the introduction of new technologies and the use of alternative and saving energy sources through participation in the Energy Efficient Village project.

Another three or four years ago, the Cabinet of Ministers recognised this project as the best energy efficiency and energy conservation project implemented by the local self-government body - the Kharkiv Oblast Council.

Using German experience and relying upon the concept of an energy efficient village, developed by the Institute for Sustainable Development with the assistance of US Peace Corps volunteers, the Veselivska hromada managed to attract external funding, almost without spending its own money to switch to renewable energy.

In fact, as the Vesele village admits, their fundraising system for energy efficiency measures resembles a puzzle, made up of a dozen mini-projects that were implemented using international technical assistance resources.

As proved by the experience of the implementation of the Energy Efficient Village project in Vesele, one of the key factors of the hromada's success was the energy audit of social facilities in the settlement using the so-called site-calculator, which allows to calculate the level of profitability and payback of renewable energy technologies and energy efficiency improvement measures, implemented in the village.

The practice of increasing energy efficiency has become not only an example for oblast’s hromadas to follow, but also gave impetus to further development.

At the expense of the oblast budget, those AHs, settlements and cities that are signatories to the Covenant of Mayors project, initiated by the European Union, can train their own energy managers.

15 hromadas joined this initiative in the Kharkiv Oblast.

In terms of figures

Since 2017, more than 2000 residents of the oblast have taken advantage of “warm” loans and received reimbursements for energy saving measures of more than UAH 2 million. Also, 52 “warm” loans amounting to UAH 11.5 million were issued in the oblast, of which 3.3 million came from local budgets.

In the framework of the oblast mini-projects competition “Together to the Future”, over the past three years, the Kharkiv Oblast’s hromadas have implemented 514 energy efficiency projects worth UAH 84 million.

 

"An effective hroamda is primarily an energy efficient one. It means that energy should be fully saved, and then it will become another investment component to develop all our hromada," said Viktor Solovyov, head of the Chkalovska settlement AH.

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