EU-G7 Action Plan : Demonstr Projects

Pursuant to the decision of the European Council in Corfu on 24/25 June, 1994, and to those of the G7 summit in Naples on 8/9 July, 1994, concerning an Action Plan for Ukraine aiming at the early and definitive shutdown of the Chernobyl NPP (ChNPP), the European Commission assumed a leading role in the implementation of the Action Plan (see e.g. Contract 22739). In December 1995 a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed between the Government of Ukraine, the G7 countries and the European Union, stipulating the decommissioning of Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant (ChNPP) by the end of 2000.

In order to compensate for a loss of electricity power generation due to Chernobyl NPP shutdown, Ukraine had only two alternatives to natural gas and oil import from Russia and the Middle East: extensive use of national coal and/or increased use of nuclear power. Ukrainian coal is of low quality and includes a lot of ash, and thus, is not suitable for massive electricity production as it is very polluting. In this frame, the European Commission was supporting the completion of new VVER-1000 NPPs at Zaporozhe, Rovno and Khmelnitsky (see Contract 22739).

However, taking into account the energy problems in the economy of Ukraine and the expected increases in future demand for energy in the country after the breakdown of the Soviet Union, there was also a strong need to transfer western experience in the area of energy management and conservation. Demand side energy management was not sufficiently developed and it was considered necessary to encourage an energy saving policy in the country.

The European Commission decided to assist with projects on the establishment of a Training Centre for Energy Management (see Contract 23536) and on a Feasibility Study for an Industry Energy Conservation Programme Financing Scheme (Contract 23843). The present project, programmed under the TACIS 1994 Nuclear Safety programme, complemented the aforementioned projects and was aimed at developing concrete action plans for pilot energy conservation initiatives in the food industry.

The specific objectives of the project were:

to demonstrate modern energy efficiency measures in selected plants in the food industry;
to establish an enhanced capacity of the Ukrainian food industry to improve energy efficiency and profitability of the sector, and to transfer specific related EU know-how.
The expected activities of the project were as follows:

Energy audits of 3 selected plants

Identification of sub-sectors;
Selection of the sites;
Data gathering of European factories;
Assessment of the technology used in the different processes of the selected plants;
Analysis of operating conditions;
Assessment of the use of energy in process and utilities;
Diagnosis of the control and metering system;
Comparison of the energy consumption levels for Ukrainian and similar European plants.
Establishment of monitoring and targeting systems

Procurement and installation of equipment;
Implementation of energy monitoring programme.
Development of an Action Plan for energy efficiency improvement

Development of a specific action plan for improvements in the use of energy with special attention to short-term pay-back measures;
Identification of possible difficulties to achieve a large scale programme of investment throughout the food industry, and recommendation on how they could be overcome;
Assessment of the Ukrainian resources for follow up activities.
Training of local personnel in energy efficiency techniques, monitoring and targeting systems, and energy project investment

Training of factories staff;
Practical workshops;
Management seminars.

The contract was signed in August 1996 and was implemented until February 1998.

The Contractor, in close cooperation with, and following the request of, the Project Partner, carried out energy audits in five factories instead of the three originally envisaged in the contract. The Contractor elaborated good quality energy audit reports for each site.

The installation and commissioning of the Monitoring and Targeting (M&T) Systems on-sites were successfully completed. A series of seminars on the M&T systems, energy saving technologies and cogeneration for each sub-sector with the demonstration of the installed systems was organised in December 1997. Technical reports on the M&T systems for each pilot plant were prepared and delivered.

The Contractor elaborated good quality Action Plans for each factory which include: outline of the energy audit performed in the company; a survey of existing financial provisions in Ukraine; an analysis of the country’s difficulties in introducing energy improvement measures; recommendations for overcoming the barriers identified; the methodology for preparation of a Business Plan and finally financial plans providing proposals for investments.

The Contractor implemented a training programme with the following elements:

a series of workshops and seminars on energy efficiency techniques in the food industry, M&T systems, energy audit, business plan preparation for energy efficiency projects;
two study tours to Spain;
on-the-job training of the staff of the pilot plants.
In total about 300 local specialists were trained through the different forms of training.