Municipal Heating Reform Project (MHR) Information for the Third Seminar on ESCOs

The third stage of the project focused on applying the obtained knowledge at practice by the project's participants in the process of their work on preparation of marketing and business plans of companies' development and implementation of measures on improvement of institutional capacity of ESCO companies in the field of energy saving. During the third stage of the project, the following results were achieved: preparation of business plans, preparation of marketing plans, and increasing of institutional capacity of ESCO companies. The companies that participated in the project were provided with a draft marketing plan, individual consultations were conducted with the specialists of the companies on discussion of their draft marketing plans, and the participants achieved the following results: development of marketing plans for three companies, preparation of marketing research on activity of one company, and theoretical working out of the materials and start of works on marketing research for one company. The preparation of business plans involved providing the companies with detailed information on preparation of business plans, conducting individual consultations with the specialists of the companies on discussion of their draft business plans, and the participants achieved the following results: development of business plans for two companies, preparation of materials in form of application for preliminary review of NEFCO for one company, and one company is working on development of business plan in the framework of EBRD project using the provided materials. The increasing of institutional capacity of ESCO companies involved developing a set of sample internal documents of ESCO, proposing several schemes of building organizational structure, and conducting a final training where the marketing and business plans of three companies were presented. The representatives of the companies informed the participants about the problems that they had in preparation of the materials for the project and their plans on the future development of companies for the medium-term perspective. All participants of the training confirmed the usefulness of the information received in the framework of the project and its importance for formation of the market of energy saving projects. As a result of the discussion between the participants of the project, it was approved the proposal of Mr. V. Pecherski to establish Association of ESCO companies and to sign in the nearest future the protocol of intentions to establish the Association by all the companies that have participated in the project. The objectives of establishment of the Association are: support of development of ideology of energy saving in Ukraine, promotion among the public authorities and the population of the necessity to introduce energy saving measures and building economic and organizational-legal mechanisms related to ESCO projects implementation, spreading in the society of the best practices in this field. The project's participants achieved significant results, including the development of marketing and business plans, preparation of marketing research, and increasing of institutional capacity of ESCO companies. The project's objectives were met, and the participants confirmed the usefulness of the information received in the framework of the project. The establishment of the Association of ESCO companies is expected to support the development of energy saving in Ukraine and promote the implementation of energy saving measures.