The USAID Municipal Energy Reform Project (USAID Project) has completed the competition to select cities and territorial communities in Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts controlled by the Government of Ukraine, for the purpose of improving the efficiency of municipal energy resources usage. Here are the winners:

Based on the highest scores received, the following cities have become new partner cities of the USAID Project: Bakhmut, Dobropillia, Mariupol, Severodonetsk and Sloviansk.

The USAID Project has also selected among the participants the following associated partner cities: Myrnohrad, Pokrovsk and Rubizhne.

The Project will work with the partner cities to improve their efficiency in the use of municipal energy resources. This objective, depending on the priorities of the partner city, will be achieved through: energy audits of the energy supply systems and systems for providing communal services, trainings for specialists and providing assistance to the cities in developing Sustainable Energy Action Plans (SEAP) or similar documents which identify energy development potential and promote the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. In addition, the USAID Project will provide support to the cities in establishing municipal energy management, and will assist in raising financing for the implementation of the measures identified in the plans, SEAPs or identified as priorities as a result of energy audits of the key municipal systems.

Cooperation between the USAID Project and selected cities in the east may include:

•    conducting energy audits (scans) of the key energy systems (SEAP sectors: heat supply, water supply, transport, solid waste, etc.) and buildings (as a preliminary phase in the preparation of demonstration projects or feasibility studies and/or business plans);
•    providing assistance in developing SEAPs or other energy plans;
•    creating catalogs of investment projects, as well as investment programs, if necessary;
•    preparing project proposals for international financial institutions (IFIs) or private investors (PPPs);
•    providing assistance in establishing and improving the energy management system (conducting trainings, preparing documents, etc.);
•    providing assistance in organizing work under current IFI projects;
•    establishing or improving the operation of the Condominium Clean Energy Resource Centers; and
•    conducting an information campaign (information materials, billboards, TV PSAs on energy conservation; specialized TV programs, press briefings, conferences).