OREANDA-NEWS. December 13, 2012. Today, state-of-the-art modernized, energy efficient kindergarten has been opened in Obolonskiy district of the capital city. The opening ceremony was attended by Aleksandr Popov, Chairman of the Kiev City State Administration (KCSA), Jed Barton, USAID (United States Agency for International Development) Mission Director for Ukraine, Moldova and Belarus and Maxim Timchenko, the CEO of DTEK.

 The scope of the project included winterization of the roof and outer walls of the building of kindergarten no.573, replacement of windows and doors, modernization of the building’s internal heating system, renovation of the lighting system, installation of the heliosystem, introduction of the system for remote automated collection of energy consumption data etc.

 ‘Thermal rehabilitation of kindergartens is a strategically important project for Kiev. This program will not only make it possible to guarantee comfortable conditions for our children, but also ensure significant cost saving on energy resources. Today, our task is to modernize all the pre-school institutions of the city in the same way. I am sure that in the course of time this practice should be disseminated to other state-financed institutions of Kiev,’ pointed out Aleksandr Popov.

 ‘USAID, via its project ‘Municipal Heating Reform in Ukraine’, supports energy efficiency in the area of heating supply both at the national and local level to ensure better quality, efficiency and reliability of heat supply services. This kindergarten is a good example of the way how energy efficiency improvement measures render the necessary comfort to children and their teachers at lower cost,’ underlined Jed Barton.

 ‘Thermal rehabilitation of kindergarten no.573 is a pilot project that can serve a basis for assessment of efficiency and importance of thermal modernization of buildings. Our joint task is to give a start to mass development of such projects and we are sure that having seen positive results other market players will continue our initiative. Energy efficiency remains one of the priority areas of DTEK’s social investments that will be doubled in 2013 and will amount to over UAH 120 million,’ commented on the event Maxim Timchenko, the CEO of DTEK.

 The pilot project on comprehensive thermal rehabilitation of the kindergarten is implemented in Kiev thanks to the Memorandum of Understanding signed between the KCSA, USAID project ‘Municipal Heating Reform in Ukraine’ and DTEK.