Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine

#AASuccessStories is a column about Ukrainians, who benefit from the Association Agreement with the EU and enjoy opportunities for cooperation with the European Union.

In 2014, Chernivtsi joined the European Covenant of Mayors Initiative. The participants of the initiative make a voluntary commitment to implement the city's policy in a way to reduce CO2 emissions into the environment by at least 20% by 2020. Such a commitment requires the development of a specific action plan. With the support of the Ukrainian-German international cooperation project GIZ, the “Action Plan for Sustainable Energy Development of the City of Chernivtsi for 2015-2020” was developed. This plan was reviewed and approved by the European Commission. Among the measures for energy saving and energy modernization, according to the Covenant of Mayors, Chernivtsi is implementing a project to modernize street lighting. It provides for the introduction of innovative energy-saving technologies in the city, the installation of street lights with LED lamps, the installation of alternative lighting sources. Implementation of the project under the EU program “Covenant of Mayors — Demonstration Projects” started in 2018 and completed by the end of 2020.

“Within the project it is planned to replace about 4 thousand lamps, 126 km of external power lines and 33 control cabinets for street lighting”, — project manager Maria Porchuk said (https://www.bukinfo.com.ua/show/news?lid=115100). As the result - a third of all street lighting in the city will be replaced. The alternative light sources will also be installed. 16 solar panels have already been set up in three districts of the city. This even exceeded the expected results, as it was planned to install only 6 such panels.

The total cost of the street lighting modernization project in Chernivtsi is 1.6 million euros. Under the EU's “Covenant of Mayors - Demonstration Projects” program, the EU grant covers almost 80% of the cost, which is more than € 1.2 million. The rest - 330 thousand euros - was allocated from the city budget. Lighting is being upgraded on those streets where its level is below average, and these are the central roads of the city and small streets. A monitoring system has been developed for the new lighting within the project. The new control cabinets will automatically switch the lights on/off and will automatically send electricity metering data and information about possible faults. The city authorities have already estimated that due to the modernization of street lighting, the city will be able to save about 5 million hryvnias every year. “What is important about this project is that it not only brings comfort to the people of Chernivtsi… We see how much we will save on this lighting”, — the Chernivtsi City Council representative said.

Another important goal that the city will be able to achieve through the implementation of the project on street lighting modernization is CO2 emissions reduction into the environment. According to the Covenant of Mayors, it was expected to cut the emissions at least by 20% till 2020. In Chernivtsi, it was estimated that carbon dioxide emissions were reduced by 21.3% by 2020.