Energy efficiency in municipalities II

projekt beendet

ContextEnsuring the supply of affordable, reliable and sustainable energy is a top political priority in the Ukraine. Due to significant increases in energy costs in recent years, consumers have been experiencing mounting pressure to conserve energy.By 2020, the government plans to complete thermal energy retrofits for around 100,000 public buildings across the country. However, many municipalities lack access to the financing needed to carry out energy efficiency measures. Additional hurdles include insufficient data about the energy consumption of public buildings and inadequate expertise for developing eligible project proposals which exhibit convincing energy saving potentials.Municipal energy management can help close these gaps and empower municipalities to take informed decisions on energy efficiency measures.The current project builds upon the work of its predecessor project which addressed energy efficiency in municipalities. With support from this project and from other national and international initiatives, around 50 primarily large municipalities have made progress in promoting municipal energy management and implementing energy efficiency measures. However, most municipalities, and especially smaller towns, have been unable to benefit from this approach thus far. In order to make progress, they need advice and customised solutions that will allow them to move forward with energy efficiency projects in an affordable and effective way.ObjectiveThe prerequisites for disseminating municipal energy management have improved.ApproachThe current project promotes the development and dissemination of advisory and support services on municipal energy management which are optimally adapted to smaller municipalities. In the medium term, this will facilitate the introduction of systematic and cost-effective energy management along with the planning and implementation of energy efficiency measures. The project helps present energy savings potential in a clear and transparent manner, raise awareness of energy efficiency approaches across all segments of the population, and select measures on the basis of verifiable cost-benefit considerations. Municipalities and individual residents stand to equally benefit from energy efficiency modernisation measures and from energy and cost savings. In addition to reducing local cost pressures, the project also improves chances for achieving national climate targets by reducing greenhouse gas emissions.The project focuses on four areas:—Energy management in municipalies—Planning and implementing energy efficiency measuresThe scope of advisory services offered by external service providers, particularly for smaller municipalities, is being expanded. These services are meant to help these locales introduce and operate municipal energy management schemes and support them in planning and implementing municipal energy efficiency measures. The project will help to enhance the capacities of these service providers. In addition, it will strengthen awareness and expertise among key municipal stakeholders on the benefits, options and instruments offered by energy management, and on technologies, cost-benefit analyses and project management approaches.—Funding mechanisms for external service providersThe funding mechanism is intended to promote the use of local energy services offered by municipalities and to invigorate the service market.—Energy efficiency in hospitalsSince July 2019, a new component to improve the energy efficiency in hospitals in the country was added to the project.ResultsBased on international best practices and Ukrainian realities, the project experts developed the Municipal Energy Management (MEM) concept for small Ukrainian towns. 20 pilot towns from all over Ukraine were selected as project partners to support them in introducing MEM system. Also five mentor cities from the predecessor project ‘Energy Efficiency in Municipalities’ were chosen to share their gained experiences to the new partner towns. To enable effective cooperation, all the towns were grouped into four clusters, each of which is offered with a series of MEM workshops. Joint conferences are being held to provide an opportunity for all towns to exchange their experiences. In total, 26 training events have taken place, attended by around 130 representatives from 25 municipalities.The energy managers from all the partner towns also received special energy efficiency equipment kits that they need for their day-to-day work. Each kit consists of professional tools for measuring the technical parameters for the energy efficiency of buildings, and instructions for each device including a brief description of how it is used.To support other towns that are not on the list of project partners, the online platform ‘Misto EM’ was set up. This is a source of current information that pools theoretical knowledge and practical experience with MEM, including the implementation of energy efficient measures. The platform also offers Ukrainian towns and companies opportunities for training and networking in the field of energy efficiency. So far, 50 municipalities and 51 companies have created their profiles on the platform.The project has also developed a special training course on MEM as a series of short videos. The webinars teach how to implement MEM properly and step by step. As well as theoretical knowledge, the online course includes interviews with representatives of towns that already have practical experience with the MEM implementation. All the webinars and the necessary document templates are published on the online platform.In frame of the project, a support mechanism has been set up for all partner towns to promote energy efficiency for public buildings in order to intensify the dialogue and cooperation between towns and energy efficiency service providers. This aims to provide cofinancing of up to 70 per cent to allow towns to purchase energy efficiency services. There are also plans to expand the support mechanism to other towns and hospitals in Ukraine from December 2019.

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