The USAID Energy Security Project (ESP) and the Ministry for Communities, Territories, and Infrastructure Development (Ministry of Infrastructure) briefed national and local authorities, as well as district heating (DH) companies, on the organizational and technical issues of developing low- and ultra-low-temperature DH to improve overall system efficiency and integrate renewable and waste heat sources.
“USAID ESP is working with national and local authorities on improving the overall efficiency of DH systems, developing heat supply schemes, and decarbonizing heat consumption in Ukraine,” said Michael Trainor, the project’s Chief of Party. He emphasized that the focus of the project’s support is not only on technology, but also on collaboration with government and institutions within Ukraine to develop the appropriate legal and regulatory framework so that new technologies can be more readily introduced, and also to raise awareness of these opportunities.
Natalia Khotsyanivska, Director of the Utilities Department at the Ministry of Infrastructure, noted that to ensure the reliability of heat supply the country needs to modernize its DH systems to make them energy efficient and resilient.
“The Ministry is working hard with its international partners to bring in the equipment needed to ensure efficient DH. At the same time, the Ministry has developed a state target program for the energy modernization of heat producers for the period up to 2030,” Ms. Khotsyanivska said.
The purpose of the seminar was to familiarize participants with t practical means of improving the efficiency of DH systems, reducing heat losses, cutting down on capital costs, diminishing dependency on fossil fuels, as well as helping with decarbonization.
The low-temperature and ultra-low-temperature heat supply systems discussed during the seminar allow for the efficient integration of renewable and waste heat sources into DH systems.
Kyrylo Baranchuk, technical support engineer with Danfoss LLC, along with Grundfoss Ukraine LLC senior manager Andriy Minaylov, spoke to the participants of the seminar about the experience of gradual transition to low-temperature heating for groups of buildings connected to high-temperature DH systems.
The experts also focused on the Ukrainian experience of a gradual transition to low-temperature heating for groups of buildings connected to high-temperature DH systems.
An interesting presentation based on the experience of a small Danish municipality regarding the transition from a high-temperature to a low-temperature system in the existing district heating network was presented by Nils Hansen, senior consultant of the municipality of Albertslund.
Artem Safyants, an energy expert of the international consulting company COWI, spoke about the master plan for the restoration of the centralized heat supply system in Mykolaiv and the development of the city’s heat supply system, taking into account the latest technologies.
This seminar was the sixth in a series of workshops organized by USAID ESP and the Ministry of Infrastructure to improve the efficiency of DH systems. During previous events, participants learned about the prospects for the implementation of distributed generation, cogeneration, waste heat utilization, and heat storage, as well as about the possibility of implementing IT solutions to optimize the operation of DH systems.
The next seminars will address the integration of renewable heat sources, along with the use of heat pumps and trigeneration technologies.