Ukraine: City2City in Myrhorod
Ukraine: City2City in Myrhorod
2020-08-26 - 2020-08-28

On August 26-28 representatives of five new signatory cities of the EU initiative "Covenant of Mayors - East" gathered in Myrhorod City as part of the City2City experience exchange program.

The study visit was organized by the "Covenant of Mayors - East" Office in Ukraine with the support of the Myrhorod City Council.

Thus, energy managers of five small cities and amalgamated territorial communities of Ukraine (Malyn, Bilopilska and Polohivska ATC, Boyarka and Pervomaisk) studied the experience of Myrhorod in the following issues:

  • development of the Sustainable Energy Action Plan and its implementation
  • formation of an energy management system at the municipal level
  • planning and managing the projects on energy efficiency, renewable energy and climate.

On the first day of the internship there was a meeting with the city leadership and Serhiy Solomakha, the mayor of Myrhorod, emphasized the importance of strategic planning of energy and climate policy, the importance of the minded team formation at the municipal level and the involvement of all stakeholders in the city. In his presentation he stressed that an important moment of the successful work of the energy management team at the municipal level is the political support from the city leadership and the deputy corps.

Serhiy Shvaika, Deputy Mayor, raised the issue of the importance of communication and cooperation of all parties involved in the SEAP implementation at the level of the structural divisions of the municipality and utilities. Thus, the Department of Municipal Initiatives, Investments and Energy Management is the “main communicator” in the SEAP implementation and investment planning.

The SEAP development process and the results of its implementation in Myrhorod were presented by Maksym Vereshchak, a key expert of the "Covenant of Mayors - East", who participated in the development of the document, and Valentyna Horban, the city's energy manager. Maksym Vereshchak emphasized the importance of forming a single energy balance at the city level in order to properly plan energy efficiency and renewable energy projects that will help to achieve the goals of reducing CO2 emissions. Valentyna Horban presented to the internship participants the documents for the main functions of energy management within the SEAP, which regulate the activities of an energy manager, and shared practical advices on organizing an energy monitoring system at the level of municipal buildings and utilities.

The second day of the internship was devoted to the meetings with representatives of structural divisions and utilities of the city.

The issues of funding atraction and cooperation with IFIs and donors were discussed together with Serhiy Skliar, head of financial department, and Serhiy Sen, representative of the department of municipal initiatives, investments and energy management. Serhiy Skliar shared his practical experience of working with the Ministry of Finance of Ukraine in attracting loans from IFIs, including grants, planning a financial framework for attracting investments in the SEAP implementation.

The participants visited MEs "Myrhorodteploenergo", "Myrhorodvodokanal" and "Spetskomuntrans", where they met the management of enterprises and discussed the implementation of projects on energy efficiency, ecology and renewable energy sources.

In the afternoon, the internship participants visited facilities where energy efficiency and high-energy projects were implemented: public sector buildings (school and kindergarten), a microdistrict biomass boiler house and the new MO.GE.DI.CO project on the modernization of the heating area and gas replacement for local fuels, which is implemented under a grant from the EU.

The third day of the internship: one of the most difficult issues in the SEAP implementation is attracting investments in the implementation of energy efficiency measures at the residential level. Anna Sayenko, representative of the department of municipal initiatives, investments and energy management, shared the success of Myrhorod City in cooperation with the owners of apartment buildings, and the participants had the opportunity to visit condominiums, where energy-efficient measures were implemented, as well as to discuss with their representatives the best practices and solutions at the level of residential buildings.

Well, and how without the Energy Days! Myrhorod is one of the active Signatories in matters of communication with the population and its involvement in the implementation of energy and climate policy. The best examples of social events for various target groups were presented within the framework of the European Sustainable Energy Week and Energy Days, and these are: bike parades as well as baby stroller parades for the smallest residents of the city, contests and competitions.

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