Odesa City Allocates ₴60M for New Cogeneration Units Amid Energy Crisis

Odesa City Heat Supply will receive UAH 60 million from the city budget to install new cogeneration units to provide autonomous energy generation within the city.

The decision was made during a session of the Odesa City Council on April 16.

It is noted that this is only the initial stage of a large-scale project worth almost UAH 200 million.

According to Mayor Hennadii Trukhanov, a total of 16 gas-piston cogeneration units with a total capacity of 31.8 MW are expected to be delivered. As of today, 11 units have already been delivered. Four of them are powerful units transferred with the support of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and the governments of Japan, Norway and Sweden. Another seven smaller units were provided by the German agency GSM to supply neighborhood boiler houses.

The first 3.3 MWunit has already been put into operation. It will operate for one of the district boiler houses and ensure its stable operation during the next heating season.

Installation work is also underway at five other sites.

"The works are large-scale and expensive. They include laying cable lines, building foundations, connecting to external gas and electricity networks, etc. In total, we expect our partners to install 16 gas-piston cogeneration units with a total capacity of 31.8 MW. This is enough to provide electricity to all critical infrastructure," explained the mayor.

The deputies of the Odesa City Council supported the allocation of funds for the priority measures to connect new cogeneration units. "The vote was 43 in favor, 0 against, 0 abstentions, and 3 did not vote.

Intent has already reported that during the discussion of the project, the members of the Standing Committee emphasized the need to find alternative sources of funding, in particular, government loan programs such as "5-7-9", grants and assistance from the Cabinet of Ministers and international funds.

At the Standing Committee, Valerii Ivanov, director of the utility company, said that the company had already tried to get state funding by submitting a project to the DREAM digital system expert group, but 10 out of 18 committee members voted against it. Because of this, the city has to find funds for the project on its own.

At the time, Oleksandr Ivanitskyi, chairman of the Standing Committee on Housing and Communal Services, emphasized that Odesa's budget does not currently have such significant resources. In particular, the city's development budget for 2025 is only UAH 1.5 billion, so the proposal to fully fund the project will have to be pre-approved by the budget commission.

Ірина Глухова