Modernisation partnership for energy efficiency in hospitals (completed)
Project description
Title: Modernisation partnership for energy efficiency
Commissioned by: German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ)
Country: Ukraine
Lead executing agency: Ministry for Regional Development, Building and Housing of Ukraine
Overall term: 2016 to 2020
Context
Ensuring an affordable and reliable supply of energy is a top political priority for Ukraine, a country that is heavily reliant on energy imports from abroad. More than 1,000 hospitals with around 430,000 beds are currently among the most energy-intensive public institutions nationwide. Some of these hospitals spend up to 20 per cent of their total budget on energy. The recent sharp increases in energy prices have placed the institutions responsible for running hospitals under significant financial strain and have severely reduced their scope for action. The quality of services provided by the hospitals has suffered as well, due to constraints on their ability to procure vital medical goods and equipment. Additionally, these hospitals are currently not in a position to carry out energy modernisation measures, even those requiring little or no investment.
Objective
Measures geared to modernising energy systems in Ukrainian hospitals are implemented in an exemplary manner.
Approach
With a view to achieving lasting improvements in energy efficiency at hospitals in Ukraine and given the prevailing conditions, the project proceeds on the basis of three principles:
- Owing to the overall constrained national budgetary situation, the energy rehabilitation strategies will focus on measures that demand low levels of investment, on optimising processes and on bringing about behavioural changes in working procedures at the hospitals. Such measures will already lead to significant savings in terms of both energy and costs and encourage the introduction of long-term energy management systems in the hospitals.
- Investment funds from sources such as the national budget are to be utilised in a way that results in the highest cost-benefit effect possible. With this in mind, all planned measures will in future be subjected to thorough preliminary examination.
- Hospitals are to gain easier access to financing options. The project will support the development of innovative financing strategies, such as energy performance contracting.
Results
Human and institutional capacity building is achieved through training courses for 258 representatives of service providers for energy efficiency measures, decision-makers and technical staff from hospitals:
Training participants use brochures from the medical foundation ‘Viamedica Stiftung für eine gesunde Medizin’, brochures on performing energy checks in hospitals, guidelines on improving the energy efficiency of medical facilities, manuals on energy efficiency first and an aid kit (part 2) for energy efficiency. All of these materials were developed as part of the project.
The ‘Hospital EnergyLab’ hackathon was held, the two main features of which were an extensive formulation of the problems to be solved and a wide variety of potential solutions (organisational solutions as well as prototypes and technical solutions). The event was attended by experts from various areas, including equipment manufacturers, civil servants, local government officials, hospital managers, technical staff from hospitals and IT specialists.
In total, around 1,257 people attended the events and received training from 2017 to 2019.
Pilot projects were completed in hospitals by the end of 2019. GIZ’s contribution for each hospital is 300,000 Euros. Energy savings of at least 30 per cent are anticipated.
Energy audits have been carried out at all municipal hospitals in Sumy and Chernihiv, for a total of 89 buildings.