The Regional Development, Construction, Housing and Utilities Economy Ministry of Ukraine has drawn up the updated national construction requirements allowing the placement of pre-school educational centers on the first two floors of residential high-rise buildings. “We want to expand opportunities for kindergartens located in residential buildings. We previously built kindergartens attached to buildings. Now we divided them into groups: if the children stay in the kindergarten until 16:00, they can be located in buildings, the same requirements apply to kindergartens with up to 80 children. Kindergartens 120 children can be located in attached premises, and maybe later we can expand these requirements to 160 children,” the press service of Deputy Minister Lev Partskhaladze said, citing him.
“In many cases, especially in the central districts of large cities, there is not even enough space to place a new separate preschool educational institution. The ability to design small kindergartens in residential buildings or attached to them will significantly reduce this disparity and provide residents with the necessary social infrastructure, where there is no possibility to build separate preschool educational institutions,” Partskhaladze said.
TIS Port (the stevedoring company operating in Yuzhny port, Odesa region) allows participation in the concession of Yuzhny port if the necessary law is adopted. “Yes, it is quite possible that it will be Yuzhny port,” co-owner and CEO of TIS Andriy Stavnitser said in an interview with Interfax-Ukraine. Speaking about smaller ports, he noted that, in his opinion, Ukraine does not need as many ports, and some of them can be closed, and some can be reformatted.
“Kherson, Izmail, Bilhorod-Dnistrovsky – there could be tourist zones, yacht clubs there, for example, which would bring revenues but not losses to the state,” Stavnitser said.
Asked about the considerations on the basis of which Kherson and Olvia ports were made pilot for concession, he noted that it is probably more visible for the Ministry of Infrastructure, but stressed that TIS won’t participate in any of these concessions.
“Not because we are so big, deep-water and do not notice anything else around. There are simply ports whose maintenance costs the state more than profits from them,” Stavnitser summed up. As reported, the Verkhovna Rada adopted as a basis bill No. 8125 on concession.
Freight handling at Ukrainian seaports in January-March 2018 totaled 32.8 million tonnes, which is 1.1% more than a year ago, according to tentative data from the Ukrainian Sea Port Authority. According to its data, the volume of transshipment of imported cargo increased by 30% and amounted to 5.6 million tonnes. Handling of imported coal grew by 24.1%, to 1.4 million tonnes, ores by 20.7%, to 1.9 million tonnes, crude oil transshipment grew by 51%, to 544,000 tonnes.
The volume of transshipment of exported cargo decreased 7.4%, to 23.8 million tonnes. Handling of exported ferrous metals grew by 17%, to 4.2 million tonnes.
Handling of transit freights rose by 38.4%, to 3.2 million tonnes.
In general, the seaports of Ukraine processed 2,853 vessels in January-March 2018, which is 345 vessels, or 9.7% more compared to the same period in 2017.
Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko has said that the city authorities are preparing to open several updated tourist sites in 2018 that will help attract more tourists in Kyiv, Kyiv City State Administration’s (KCSA) press service reported on March 31.
“The Champions League final will be held on May 26. We are expecting many tourists. Our goal is to make sure that each of them, upon return home, could tell about the wonderful city of Kyiv. The tourism industry is one of the profitable articles of each city. In the past year, our capital was visited by one-and-a-half million tourists. This year we expect two-and-a-half million guests. I am convinced that Kyiv has great tourist potential, and we are developing it. This year, we will renew St. Volodymyr Hill, the Alley of Artists, and the Landscape Alley. We will soon open very beautiful stairs from the Landscape Alley to the Honchari-Kozhumiaky natural landmark. We will develop the territory around St. Andrew’s Church,” Klitschko said.
According to him, each tourist spends an average of $150 a day in Kyiv, which also invests in the capital’s economy.
According to the report, many guests will come to the city this autumn, when Kyiv hosts the 56th Congress of the World Boxing Council (WBC). Such a great boxing event in Ukraine will be held for the first time.
National energy company Ukrenergo believes that in the conditions of rampant development of renewable energy, highly maneuverable balancing facilities (battery and gas reciprocating power plants) with a capacity of 2.5 GW should be built in Ukraine before 2025, Ukrenergo Head Vsevolod Kovalchuk said at the presentation of the respective study in Kyiv on Tuesday.
“Quick maneuverable balancing facilities should cover 30% of the installed capacity of facilities using renewable energy. Based on the forecasts of how the total capacity of solar power plants and wind farms will increase, by 2025 we need to build maneuverable facilities with a capacity of 2.5 GW – energy storage facilities with lithium batteries and gas reciprocating plants,” he said.
Kovalchuk said that the cost of building these facilities is about UAH 55 billion.
The head of Ukrenergo said that if Ukraine does not build highly maneuverable facilities, then with an increase in the share of renewable energy, it will have to limit production of nuclear power plants (operating in the basic mode) and increase the share of coal-burning thermal power plants (TTPs capable of maneuvering). This will raise the total cost of electricity generated in the country by 57.7%.
Another alternative scenario is to limit the operation of solar power plants and wind farms in the peak periods. This will cost the country even more, as it will have to pay for both operation of nuclear power plants and TPPs, as well as compensate for under-generated electricity of solar power plants and wind farms. In this scenario, the total cost of electricity generated in the country will increase by 99%.
“Out of the three possible scenarios, the construction of highly maneuverable balancing facilities leads to the least increase in the cost of electricity – by 48.7%. The investment of UAH 55 billion in their construction will save UAH 65 billion in comparison with the scenario of limiting the operation of renewable energy,” the head of Ukrenergo said.
The head of the company said that, in his opinion, the construction of energy storage facilities with lithium batteries should be stimulated either by introducing a special tariff (following the example of ‘green’ energy) or through the mechanism of auctions.
“We will initiate the introduction of a feed-in tariff, or other mechanisms that would make it possible to make the profitability of these highly maneuverable facilities no lower than for facilities consuming renewable energy,” Kovalchuk said.
The head of the company said that a pilot project can be organized through Ukrenergo, when the Ukrainian power grid operator itself holds an auction for the construction of energy storage facilities.
At the same time, he said that it would be impossible to delay the solution of the problem. The first 500 MW of highly maneuverable facilities should begin to operate in 2020.
