The USAID Municipal Energy Reform Project in Ukraine (USAID Project) conducted energy audits of 60 public buildings in Zaporizhzhia, including 53 educational establishments and 7 health protection institutions. The audits formed the basis of documents allowed the City Council to form an application for € 16.7mln in credit from the European Investment Bank (EIB) under the "Ukraine Municipal Infrastructure Development Program" project (UMIDP). The city’s application received a positive assessment regarding the compliance of the projects with eligibility criteria, and is waiting to be included in the Preliminary List of UMIDP Projects as a result of the second phase of selection by the Ministry of Regional Development, Construction and Housing and Communal Services of Ukraine. 

Minregion is also considering the city’s application for obtaining credits for modernizing the heat supply sector under UMIDP project. If successful, the application will be included in the Preliminary List of Projects and will be sent for assessment by the Ministry of Finance of Ukraine. But in view of the priorities for development of the heating system and possible increase of financial burden on the consumers, the USAID Project is currently finalizing feasibility studies for projects in the municipal heating sector. The updated calculations will envisage the installation of 801 individual heat substation (IHS) in multi-apartment residential buildings (project “Installation of IHSs in Residential Buildings of Oleksandrivskyi, Voznesenivskyi, Dniprovskyi and Komunarivskyi Districts of Zaporizhzhia” worth € 12.49mln.) and the reconstruction of 10 boiler houses along with the modernization of burners in 17 boilers ("Comprehensive Heat Supply Sector Project" worth € 11.1mln.).

For the municipal water supply and sewage sector, the USAID Project has developed the pre-feasibility study for the “Reconstruction and Expansion of Central Treatment Facilities for Left Bank Sewage Treatment Plant 1 in Zaporizhzhia" project. An application for € 10.9mln of EIB credit funds under UMIDP has successfully passed Phase I of the competitive selection and as of early June 2017 was waiting for the results of consideration by Minregion. Work on finalizing the design documentation is being conducted in parallel and is based on expert opinion regarding the calorific capacity of treatment facilities, sludge deposits and a possible change of the payback period for the envisaged measures. 

Zaporizhzhia also developed an application for receiving € 16mln from a joint EIB and European Bank for Reconstruction and Development project. The application has already passed the expertise of the Ministry of Infrastructure of Ukraine. It is planned to spend the funds for replacing the rolling stock in “Zaporizhelektrotrans” communal utility, including the procurement of 30 new trolley-buses and 20 trams. As a result of project implementation the level of energy consumption by the transport will fall, while both the comfort of passenger transportation and environmental situation in the city will improve. 

In addition to the above projects, the city authorities plan to implement in the near future projects on street lighting modernization with use of LED lamps as well as the comprehensive energy efficient modernization of 40 public buildings.

It should be noted that Zaporizhzhia has a “road map” for comprehensive and targeted changes complying with the call of the times. This is the Sustainable Energy Action Plan (SEAP) of the city developed with support of the USAID Project. The document was adopted by the City Council at the end of 2016 and envisages the reduction of CO₂ emission by 23% by 2020, which is a rather ambitious goal, and requires the attraction of significant amounts of financial resources.