Kyiv is establishing a backup heating and power supply system
The city’s mayor, Vitali Klitschko, made this statement in an interview with the ‘Kyiv’ television channel.
According to the mayor, Kyiv has one of the largest district heating systems in Europe, which has been built up over decades.
“We now have four months not only to repair the damaged system, but also to create a backup in case the centralised heating system is destroyed,” he noted.
Klitschko emphasised that building a fully-fledged, powerful cogeneration system in a few months is an extremely difficult task, but the city is already implementing measures to strengthen energy resilience.
“This requires significant resources, particularly human resources. We are facing an acute staff shortage, but we are continuing to work intensively, for the time being without state support,” said the mayor.
According to him, Kyiv needs state assistance, as the cost of creating an alternative heating and energy supply system is estimated at 30–60 billion hryvnias.
“According to our calculations, around 30 billion hryvnias is needed to purchase equipment and launch alternative heat supply sources. We propose that half of this sum be funded by the state and half by the city. We are constantly holding meetings with the government and want clear guarantees, not just declarations, regarding which facilities the state will fund and whether they will be ready for operation this winter,” Klitschko noted.
He also emphasised that 70–80% of the capital’s budget consists of protected expenditure – salaries for medical staff, teachers and public utility workers. Furthermore, he said, the state withholds 60% of personal income tax, does not compensate local authorities for the difference in heating tariffs, and does not cover the costs of subsidised travel.
“It is often said that Kyiv’s budget exceeds 100 billion hryvnias. But Kyiv is Ukraine’s largest city and one of the largest in Eastern Europe, home to over 3.5 million people. At the same time, around 80% of the budget is allocated to protected expenditure items,” the mayor explained.
According to him, the city has already transferred 1.25 billion hryvnias to the Recovery Agency (State Agency for the Recovery and Development of Ukraine’s Infrastructure – ed.) and has allocated a total of over 15 billion hryvnias for the modernisation of the heating system and preparations for the next heating season.
As a reminder, earlier, Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister for Energy, Denys Shmyhal, unveiled a plan to decentralise Ukraine’s energy system.
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