The Ministry of Development of Communities, Territories and Infrastructure of Ukraine and the USAID Energy Security Project (PEB) signed a Memorandum on improving the sustainability, efficiency and competitiveness of the district heating sector.
The United States Agency for International Development will help reform the district heating system at the local and national levels, reports USAID.
It is noted that such cooperation will contribute;
- increasing energy sustainability thanks to distributed generation;
- use of renewable energy;
- modernization of the district heating sector.
The Deputy Minister of Community Development, Territories and Infrastructure Oleksandr Butenko emphasized that for the decarbonization of the energy system, its transformation and modernization, as well as the improvement of Ukraine's energy security, it is necessary to:
- reforming the energy sector in accordance with EU best practices;
- optimization of the municipal heat supply system of Ukraine;
- popularization of large-scale implementation of decentralized energy supply;
- integration of various sources of renewable energy;
- increasing energy efficiency will contribute to the decarbonization of the energy system and increase Ukraine's energy security.
The report said that the memorandum envisages the development of policies and the formation of structures for further integration of coordinated, long-term district heating systems into planning at the local level. Cooperation will focus on ensuring:
- effective programs of centralized heat supply;
- increasing the sustainability and efficiency of heat production, in particular the integration of distributed generation.
"With the simultaneous production of electricity and heat, cogeneration will play a key role in reducing power outages during emergency situations and will ensure a constant supply of energy to critical infrastructure facilities in local communities," explained USAID.
According to Michael Trainor, head of USAID PEB, the parties will work on improving the regulatory framework for the district heating sector to increase its financial sustainability.
"We will focus on supporting a number of investment projects for distributed generation using a variety of energy sources and building the technical capacity of local authorities and stakeholders in the sector, in addition to the special attention we will pay to the development of regulatory documents for distributed generation in district heating systems," – Trainor said.
It is noted that the cooperation will include not only the satisfaction of urgent needs, but also help in the strategic planning of the post-war recovery of the heating sector.
Earlier, EcoPolitic wrote, that the leading organizations of the EU renewable energy sector called on the European Commission, the European Parliament and the member states to implement 10 steps to speed up the decarbonization of the heat supply sector.
As EcoPolitic previously reported, the city of Dubno in the Rivne region, the first in Ukraine, switched the entire heating system from natural gas to alternative fuels, namely wood chips, pellets, peat briquettes and peat chips.
