The award ceremony that recognized winners of the competition for the best energy efficient projects "Energy Efficiency Fund Awards – 2020”, was held on May 19, 2021, in Kyiv as part of the 23rd International Exhibition Aqua Therm Kyiv.

The competition recognized the best energy efficiency renovation projects performed on multi-family buildings (MFB) in 2020 under the Energy Efficiency Fund’s "ENERGODIM" program.

The event was attended by experts from the Energy Efficiency Fund, representatives of municipal authorities, HOAs, the media, leading experts from relevant industry associations and NGOs.

The winners were selected in four nominations:

1) “ENERGO-DIM” (HOAs - participants of the Fund's program)

2) "ENERGO-COMMUNITY" (municipal authorities)

3) “ENERGO-MEDIA” (journalists, bloggers, mass media covering energy efficiency)

4) “ENERGY AUDITOR” (energy auditors - individuals who certified the energy efficiency of buildings for the HOAs participating in the Fund's program).

The winners of the competition received awards and distinctions from the Energy Efficiency Fund and its partners.

The competition was sponsored by Danfoss Ukraine and supported by GIZ in Ukraine, UNDP in Ukraine and the International Finance Corporation (IFC - World Bank Group).

Opening the event, Yulia Holovatyuk-Unguryanu, CEO of the Energy Efficiency Fund, noted that this competition will be henceforward held on an annual basis.

“This competition is extremely important for us, because we know that pioneers of any program usually have harder times, be it Energodim or a different initiative. Therefore, we are hopeful that they will accept these prizes and awards as a token of recognition of their courage and all the efforts made as the first-movers,” emphasized the CEO of the Fund.

In response, Natalia Oliynyk, the President of the All-Ukrainian Council of HOAs Heads and the Chairwoman of the Fund's Competition Committee, underscored that energy efficiency is a key priority for the country.

"Today HOAs have to work in synergy with cities, when municipalities should also support and run their own co-owners support program, which should also extend to the participants of Energodim program,  added Natalia Oliynyk.

Below is the list of prize winners:

In the category ENERGO-DIM, the award was given to two winners: the HOA that implemented package A “Light” in their building, and the HOA that implemented package B “Complex”:

- HOA "Zabolotnoho 59" (package A)

- HOA "Lypy-2" (package B)

These nominees won the competition based on high performance in energy savings, fast project implementation (each project lasted 7-8 months), good visualization and engineering, and high-quality preparation of documents for participation in the Program.

Sponsors of the competition, GIZ and Danfoss Ukraine, presented to HOA "Zabolotnoho 59" certificates for a video surveillance system and equipment for the snow melting system.

HOA "Lypy 2" was awarded a UAH 50,000 certificate from Danfoss Ukraine for the purchase of sets of thermostats.

“13 houses with established HOAs in Novoyavorivsk have already applied for participation in the Energodim program. We hope that the entire Lypy Street will be renovated by the end of 2021, and in 5 years the whole city of Novoyavorivsk will be EE renovated,” - said Halyna Dzhulai, First Deputy Mayor of Novoyavorivsk, who supported a thermal renovation project in Lypy 2 HOA as a house manager.

The award in the “ENERGO-COMMUNITY” nomination was given to two winners - Lviv and Mykolayiv City Councils: they finished the competition with equal scores – 81 out of 100 possible points.

The first place was awarded to these communities because they funded local programs for support and development of the housing sector, allocated investment from the city budget for energy efficiency of housing, ran efficient communication campaigns with residents, implemented the biggest number of projects under the program "ENERGODIM" within one community, and achieved a good progress in establishing more HOAs.

Communities will receive sets of measuring equipment for energy audits from GIZ and sets of equipment for the snow melting system from Danfoss Ukraine.

In addition, the Association "Energy Efficient Cities of Ukraine" prepared for the winners in the nomination "ENERGO-COMMUNITY" other gifts: a study tour to a specially selected city, the purchase of AIS for energy monitoring of the community’s housing sector, and consultations on implementing/upgrade of energy management system in the community’s housing sector.

Vyacheslav Kobets was selected as the best ENERGY AUDITOR in the competition.

Mr.Kobets has been operating in the energy efficiency market for 10 years. To-date, he has performed 71 energy audits for HOAs, including 37 energy audits in 2020 for HOAs participating in the Energodim program.

As the best Energy Auditor, the winner received a certificate for receiving a smartphone and a cover for a smartphone with a thermal imager from GIZ and a certificate for receiving a Smart-heating control system Danfoss Link Starter Pack from Danfoss Ukraine.

Dmytro Lytvynenko, a journalist with the STB TV channel was the winner in the ENERGO-MEDIA nomination. Dmytro has worked over 23 years for various TV channels, including 13 years for the STB.

Mr.Lytbynenko authored and produced more than 10 stories on energy efficiency with a large coverage. In his stories he highlighted cases of thermal renovation of residential buildings under the Energodim program.

Dmytro received a certificate for receiving the Danfoss Link Starter Pack Smart Heating Control System from the sponsor of the competition, Danfoss Ukraine.

Mykola Kuzin, a public relations specialist at Danfoss Ukraine, noted that home renovations should provide both savings and comfort, and non the less important, safety, which is why the company decided to reward the winners with snowmelt and anti-icing systems.

Several awards were given to other players of the energy efficiency sector for their commitment and proactive approach and a significant contribution to the promotion of energy saving measures among HOAs.

These included: HOA “Shchurata 8”, HOA “Aviator 164”, HOA “Antonycha 32”, HOA “Antonycha 26”, HOA “Govorova-5”, HOA “Hrushevskoho 13-A”, HOA “Lypy 4” and HOA "Liuks Rozdil".

Thus, in addition to the award as a participant of Energodim program, whose example inspires other HOAs, the Lviv HOA "Shchurata 8", was awarded by the competition sponsor GIZ with a certificate for a video surveillance system, a laptop with MS Office software and computer mouse.

Certain communities received special awards, including the Volodymyr-Volyn City Council for its leadership in promoting energy efficiency initiatives, the Mariupol City Council for actively supporting energy renovation measures, and the Novoyavorivsk City Council for actively promoting the Energodim program.

Other energy auditors that ran for the best prize were also noted, including Volodymyr Dovbenko, Dmytro Litvinov, Maria Pryhornieva and Myroslav Tkachenko.

Petro Lavryniuk, Halyna Kohut and Maksym Lytvynenko were recognized the most active IFC regional consultants for their outstanding contribution to the promotion of energy saving measures among HOAs.

Meanwhile, Svitlana Rozhok, Tetyana Hvozd and Iryna Boyko were among the most active regional coordinators of the EU / UNDP project “Association of Homeowners for Sustainable Energy Efficient Solutions” (HOUSES) for their proactive approach to creating HOAs.

In addition, the Fund presented special thanks to the experts of the energy efficiency sector for their active work in the Competition selection Committee, including:

-Svetlana Timshina, EU / UNDP Project Manager (HOUSES);

-Natalia Oliynyk, President of the NGO "All-Ukrainian Council of ACMH Chairmen";

-Serhiy Kosharuk, advisor on energy efficiency, environment and community development of the Association "Energy Efficient Cities of Ukraine" (AEMU);

-Vasily Liman, President of the Association of Housing Managers;

-Iryna Lagunova, Head of the Consulting Department of the Interstate Guild of Consulting Engineers;

-Oleg Harnyk, the Association of Ukrainian Cities’ (AUC) analyst on housing and communal services.

In addition, the Fund's partner banks, such as Ukrgasbank and Kredobank, were recognized for their financial support of "Energodim" participants during the implementation of energy saving projects in multi-storeyed buildings.

The Fund also thanked Danfoss Ukraine and the German federal company Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) for their financial contributions to awards for the winners of the competition.

Of note, the Fund announced a competition of the best energy efficiency projects -2020 in early March 2021.

Applications for participation in the competition were received from March 4 to April 18, 2021 inclusive.