496,000 families seized opportunities of warm loans program
At present, 1,146 district heating companies that supply heat to the households are operating in Ukraine. By now, 96,4 % residential buildings and 99,3% social infrastructure have been connected to the heat carrier. This was stated by Vice Prime Minister/ Minister of Regional Development, Construction, Housing and Communal Services of Ukraine Hennadii Zubko at a Government meeting.
"For three years, the Government has been working to stabilize the financial situation of district heating companies. The bill №1730 approved by the Parliament was elaborated by the Ministry of Regional Development, Construction, Housing and Communal Services. The document allowed to restructure the multibillion-dollar debts of heat supply companies that had been accumulated in previous years. As of today, 204 district heating enterprises are included in the register for restructuring and a debt worth UAH 2.7 billion UAH was written off the enterprises who timely and actively participated in this process ", the Vice Prime Minister noted.
He emphasized that in addition to financial stabilization and the development of a route map for the reform of the heating system, the core objective is to protect each family. "This is not only a subsidy for the payment of utilities, but first of all, the possibility of thermo-modernization to reduce consumption. Since the beginning of the "warm loans" program, 496 thousand families took advantage of it. This is roughly like the population of Zhytomyr and Vinnytsia cities.Only in 2018, 122 thousand families seized the opportunities of this program", Hennadii Zubko stressed.
The Vice Prime Minister proposed to transfer thermal power plants which are now under the management of the State Property Fund of Ukraine into communal ownership. This will allow to conduct modernization of those enterprises with the support of international partners. "We have a great support from our international partners - the World Bank and the European Investment Bank. This assistance envisages providing loans totaling 500 million euros to many Ukrainian cities. Many cities, having carried out the modernization, either refused gas at all, or restructured their heat supply system ", he said.
He cited as an example the EIB program of 31 million euros being implemented in Kryvyi Rih, Dnipropetrovsk region to modernize the city's heating and cooling plant.