Oleksiy Kucherenko, minister of Housing and Communal Services of Ukraine, stated that Ukraine is very close to the implementation of a programme of the improvement of the energy efficiency of its utilities sector. He made the statement at the Resurs conference, which took place within the scope of Aqua-Therm Kyiv 2009 exhibition on 14 May 2009. It is the major task of the ministry and other sector organisation to reduce the cost and improve the quality of utility services for consumers. However, the implementation of this task directly depends on the improvement of the energy efficiency of the utilities sector in the course of the energy production, distribution and consumption. To this end, the ministry and other stakeholders are developing the National Heat Supply Strategy of Ukraine. It is supposed to solve organisational, legal, regulatory and financial issues related to the development and the implementation of regional community-level heat supply development programmes.

The plans provide for opening a credit facility of UAH 90 billion under the programme for the implementation of specific measures involving the equipment upgrades and replacements, the installation of metering and control systems, the migration to renewable sources of the thermal energy, etc. The state expects to reduce the natural gas consumption by the utilities by 30% over the first 5 years of the programme implementation due to the introduction of specific measures that will pay back quickly.

The work has been carried out under the strategy along the following lines:

- A register of all boilers and boiler houses of Ukraine has been drawn up; the problem areas being in need of attention have been identified. There are 31,200 boiler houses and 72,300 boilers in Ukraine; two thirds of them are gas-fuelled. Most of them are obsolete and worn; their efficiency rarely exceeds 70%, which translates into 12 Bcm of the natural gas burned every year by the utilities energy sector.
- The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine has approved the concept of the State Special-purpose Thermal Energy Sector Upgrade Programme. The programme has to be developed by 1 July 2009 and submitted to the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine for approval. If approved, the programme will have the status of a law setting out major mechanisms of the implementation and the volumes of funding of the energy saving projects. 

- The draft law "On Energy Efficiency of Buildings" developed in line with EU Directive 2002/91/EC on the energy efficiency in buildings has been endorsed and presented to Verkhovna Rada for review. The law sets out legal and economic principles of the assurance of the energy efficiency of buildings, including the energy audits and the building certification issues.
- The Ministry has prepared methodological recommendations on the development of regional community-level thermal energy sector upgrade programmes together with the Thermal Physics Institute of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. They deal, first of all, with the compilation of regional balances of all fuels, which could replace the natural gas, etc.

Unfortunately, there are a number of factors hampering the implementation of the energy saving programme in the communal sector. They include the inefficient ownership system and the lack of mechanisms of the encouragement of the implementation of such projects at the regional level. According to Mr. Kucherenko, the development of a reasonable utilities pricing policy for households, which would take account of the investment component and require heat suppliers to upgrade and rehabilitate their systems, is an important factor expected to speed up the programme implementation at the national level.

As regards the improvement of the energy efficiency in buildings, the major issue is the lack of effective building owners and the lack of the thrifty energy use culture. As reported by Knauf Insulation Ukraine, homes consume more than 40% of all energy resources of the country and waste up to 50% of the energy input due to the poor technical condition. This situation is caused by the absent or poor weatherisation of buildings, the poor availability of heat and water meters and controllers in buildings.

The imperfection of financial mechanisms used to raise funds for the implementation of energy saving projects in residential houses also plays an important role.
Currently, Verkhovna Rada is reviewing a new wording of the Law on OSMD (condominiums) taking account of a number of problematic issues that have not been properly regulated in the previous wording of the law. According to representatives of the ministry, the adoption of the new law will provide favourable conditions for setting up condominiums in apartment blocks and speed up the process of the implementation of energy saving measures in residential houses

According to the ministry, the adoption of efficient measures at the organisational, legal and technical level in the utilities sector of Ukraine will make it possible to save up to UAH 15 billion per year in total.