In 2020, EECU established and launched the Revolving Fund for Cities (RFC) Programme, a financial mechanism designed to support its members in implementing energy efficiency measures.

How does it work?

The municipality transfers funds to the RFC as a special membership-fee based on decisions made by the city council. Through mutual agreement with the respective municipality, EECU provides the revocable financial assistance to Homeowners Associations (HoAs) of co-owners of multi-apartment buildings that is participating in the state funded program "Energodim" to facilitate the pre-finance energy efficiency measures. Upon the completion of the undertaken measures by the HoA and subsequent reimbursement from "Energodim" the revocable financial assistance provided to HoA is returned to EECU. These funds are then made available for other HoAs in need.

Benefits for municipalities:

• Utilizing the revolving mechanism proves to be more effective than providing one-time, non-repayable financial donations from local budgets to HoA through regular municipal programs as this approach enables the implementation of a greater number of energy efficiency measures;
• for each UAH 1 allocated from the local budget, RFC will leverage another UAH 14 from the state budget and apartment owners, thereby maximizing the impact;
• The decision-making process is flexible and transparent, with less stringent financial operation requirements;
• The use of RFC reduces the overall timeline for implementing projects within the "Energodim" program.

The State Energy Efficiency Fund has recognized the value of RFC and actively promotes its benefits among Ukrainian municipalities. Collaborative events have been organized to spread awareness about the utilization of RFC.

As of today (January 2024), ten municipalities (Lviv, Rivne, Kostopil, Dubove, Novovolynsk, Novoyavorivsk, Novohrodivka, Kovel, Kramatorsk and Kamianets-Podilskyi) use the EECU Revolving Fund of Cities Programme. In total, seventeen projects have been financed from RFC so far.

The webinar on the possibilities of the Revolving Fund for Cities can be viewed here.

For more information on the use of the EECU RFC, please contact the EECU Executive Directorate (office@enefcities.org.ua tel. +38 032 2455 262) or the Programme Manager Serhii Kosharuk (skosharuk@enefcities.org.ua tel. +38 050 3782 013).