The next heating season in Ukraine, particularly in Kyiv, will be significantly more difficult than the current one. Municipal services will not be able to promptly restore damaged infrastructure, so residents of high-rise buildings need to prepare for autonomy now rather than relying on state programs.
Oleg Popenko, head of the Union of Utilities Consumers, stated this during a broadcast with political scientist and Hvylya editor-in-chief Yuriy Romanenko.
The expert emphasized that approximately 1,400 buildings in Kyiv remain at risk, and "no one will really do anything" before the cold weather sets in. He advises residents to take the lead based on their building type.
"In buildings taller than nine stories: a generator is mandatory for elevator operation and the pump group (water/heating). In buildings up to nine stories: at least an inverter with batteries for the pump group and lighting of common areas," Popenko noted.
He stressed that counting on utility workers in the event of sewage or heating network failures is futile: "The hope that a municipal enterprise will come and fix it is a fantasy. No one is coming."
Oleg Popenko criticized the idea of mass installation of solar panels on high-rise rooftops using budget funds as a winter survival strategy. According to him, during short daylight hours and snowfall, their efficiency drops to a critical minimum.
"Rooftops have shown that solar panels don't work there at all in winter. Dozens of buildings in Kyiv installed them, and the efficiency is 1-2%... There is no sun in winter, and there is no one to clear the snow," the expert explained.
Instead, he suggests redirecting budget programs (such as Kyiv's "70/30" initiative) toward purchasing generators, which provide "90% efficiency."
For the private sector and small houses, Popenko suggests drawing on Poland's experience from the late 1990s, when the state distributed solid-fuel boilers en masse during an energy crisis.
"Recall Poland in the late 90s. A crisis, no gas. What did they do? Mass distribution of coal-fired solid-fuel boilers. All of Krakow was smoking, but people survived," the expert recalled.
He considers the state's "eDrova" (e-Firewood) program a failure because it was restricted only to combat zones, and he calls for giving people in forested regions (Sumy, Zhytomyr) the opportunity to heat their homes with wood through state compensation.
Additionally, Popenko criticized the adopted Draft Law No. 10467, which mandates the installation of Individual Heating Points (IHP) by monopolists—Teplokomunenergo. In his opinion, this will only lead to higher utility bills.
"IHPs are great; they mean savings. But they mandated Teplokomunenergo to install them! A monopolist that sells heat and has no interest in savings... Instead, they raised the tariff to burden Ukrainians with an additional payment. It's a classic move," Oleg Popenko summarized.
Instead, he proposes transferring the right to install IHPs to building managers under low-interest loans, as was done in Europe, so that residents can pay them off through heat savings.
