The 1st International Energy Efficiency in Industry and Agriculture conference was held in Kyiv on September 4-5, 2014 at the President Hotel. The event was organized by the Association for Energy Efficiency and Energy Saving and ETR-Spectrum LLC in partnership with Derzhzovnishinform.
The Conference was attended by more than 180 participants and about 40 presentations on the topic of energy efficiency and energy saving were made by various speakers. Current data on the state of energy efficiency and energy saving in the world, the EU, the CIS and Ukraine was provided, and the main problems and obstacles to the implementation of energy efficiency projects, as well as ways to solve them were analysed. Legislative initiatives, changing consumer behaviour, the latest technologies and projects in the field of energy efficiency and energy saving, all of this were key subjects of discussion at the event.
However, all participants in the conference were in agreement that without significant introduction of energy-efficient technologies, Ukraine’s industry and utilities sectors will not be able to compete with Europeans. Alexander Golizdra, head of the media projects department, noted that the metallurgy, coal, and the food industries most urgently require funds for energy re-equipment. In general, according to Golizdra and various other estimates, in the coming years Ukraine needs investments of between 25 to 100 billion dollars to modernise the energy sector. A representative of the European Energy Community, Borko Radevich, also gave a detailed analysis of the implementation of European Directives on energy efficiency in Ukraine.
Oleg Kozachuk, President of the Association for Energy Efficiency and Energy Saving, presented the main points and projects for energy efficiency in Ukraine. According to him, today the energy intensity of Ukrainian industry is 3 times higher than the European average and each single hryvnia that would be invested in energy efficiency projects ismatched by a return of three hryvnia in energy savings. Sergei Maslichenko, Senior Manager of the EBRD's Department of Energy Saving and Climate Change, demonstrated the EBRD's ability to finance energy efficiency and energy saving projects. According to him, within the framework of the Ukrainian energy efficiency program, 77 energy efficiency projects were financed throughout the country through five banks in the period from 2007 to 2013.
And in the summer of this year, the EBRD announced that they have doubled the amount of funding for the program of alternative energy projects in Ukraine to 140 million euros. Alexander Grek, Chief Power Engineer of Zaporozhstal, and Evgeny Shramko, Head of the Continuous Development Department of Zaporozhstal, described methods for reducing energy costs in the production of marketable metal products. The key to making such changes lie in the motivation of staff to reduce energy consumption, and building a comprehensive energy management system throughouot all levels of the enterprise hierarchy.
A project to replace gas with solid biofuels at one of Ukraine’s largest enterprises, the Arcellor Mittal Krivoy Rog plant, was presented by the Kyiv Bioenergy Company together with the Gas Institute, this turned out to be very interesting for many attendees at the conference. Prospects for attracting European funding for the development of technology in industry from the HORIZON 2020 fund were discussed by Elena Vlasyuk, the Executive Director of the Ukrainian Steel Technology Platform. Representatives of the German company Thyssen Krupp Anton Walter and William Grot demonstrated advanced technologies in the field of burners.
The conference also presented advanced solutions and technologies for the use; of hydrocarbon fuels, renewable sources and technologies (corn, biogas, biomethane), heat pumps, solid waste, energy efficient heating, ventilation, air conditioning, refrigeration, hot water, geothermal and many others. The conference was attended by companies from Italy, Spain, Germany, China, Korea, Japan, Slovakia and South Africa.
