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The aim of the article is to study the structure of the market of heat energy producers by organizational and legal forms of economic management and by types of ownership, to determine on this basis the directions of reforming the communal heat and power industry. To achieve the aforementioned goal, the available regional registers of licensees-economic entities in the field of heat supply, as well as the resolutions of the National Energy and Utilities Regulatory Commission on the issuance of licenses and/or setting the tariffs for heat energy, are analyzed. The accomplished analysis covers the period from 2014 to the first half of 2023 inclusive. 980 economic entities that carried out economic activity during the analyzed period, among them 844 that operated at the end of this period, are identified. These economic entities have different forms of ownership and different organizational and legal forms of economic management. It is determined that the well-known statement that the municipal heat and power industry has been in a state of crisis is valid only for the communal utilities operating large district heating systems. Such enterprises are characterized by a high level of wear and tear of equipment, unsatisfactory financial condition, and inefficient management of the enterprise. Along with the latter, the private sector enterprises are actively developing in Ukraine. Of the total number of economic entities included in the sample (844), more than half (492) are private enterprises, limited liability companies, or individual entrepreneurs. Such economic entities operate effectively in regional markets without receiving any subsidies from local budgets; many of them have been around for more than 10 years. On the basis of the performed analysis, directions of reforming heat and power enterprises of various forms of ownership, first of all, the State-owned and municipal enterprises, are suggested. It is proposed, when expecting an increase in the level of management of a municipal utility enterprise, in particular, to have all kinds of activities unbundled and to implement the outsourcing of the non-core functions. Prospects for further research on this topic would be the study of the organization of heat supply in certain regions and settlements of Ukraine. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article proves that today Ukraine finds itself in a situation where it depends solely on imported supplies of light oil products to meet its motor fuel needs, which is unacceptable from the point of view of the country’s energy and national security, and the solution to this problem lies in the plane of organization of motor fuel production from the country’s own natural resources. The purpose of the study is to substantiate the technical and economic foundations for creating a synthetic motor fuel subsector in Ukraine. To achieve this aim, the authors define the classification of alternative motor fuels; provide a comparative description of the energy content and scope of use of different types of motor fuels, and also provides comparative characteristics of synthetic along with the best grades of natural oil; assess the compliance of synthetic gasoline and diesel fuel with the Euro-4 standard; considers the technical-operational advantages of synthetic analogues of oil fuel over other alternatives. Based on the carried out analysis, the article proves that, given the limited resource capabilities of Ukraine’s motor fuel production from oil and natural gas, the production of synthetic liquid motor fuel (SLMF) from coal raw materials should be recommended for development in the country; the raw material base for the production of synthetic liquid fuel is researched. The article also analyzes the peculiarities of methods and specific technologies for producing synthetic liquid motor fuel from coal and determines that the technology of synthesizing synthetic liquid motor fuel using the Fischer-Tropsch method with preliminary production of synthesis gas by steam-oxygen gasification of coal is advisable for development in Ukraine. Taking this into account, the resource and product balance of the full cycle of synthetic liquid fuel production is formed, a general production scheme of the industry subsector of SLF in Ukraine is developed, technical-economic characteristics of the national and regional industrial complexes for the production of SLF are presented, and the structure of the subsector for the production of SLF in the country is proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of the article is to substantiate the feasibility of an integrated approach to the implementation of measures for the restoration and modernization of housing stock and heat supply objects. On the conditional example of heat supply of a heated quarter (which means a small number of residential buildings to be heated, a local boiler room and local distribution heat networks), various modernization options are considered: separate thermal modernization of buildings, modernization of heating networks, modernization of the boiler room, and options for simultaneous modernization of all elements of the chain: production-supply-consumption of heat energy (complex modernization of the heated district). It is proved that precisely a comprehensive modernization, which involves a simultaneous production, coordinated in terms of time and volumes, supply and consumption of heat, is an effective instrument for improving efficiency in the sphere of heat supply and heat consumption. The complexity of modernization in this example involves thermal modernization of buildings in the heated district (with a decrease in heat consumption by 40%) with the simultaneous modernization of heat transmission networks (with a decrease in heat loss when supplied from 20% to 5%) and modernization of the boiler room (with an increase in the efficiency quotient of boiler equipment from 88% to 93%). The implementation of such a project is economically feasible for all participants: consumers reduce the cost of paying for heat supply services by 49%, and the supplier and producer of heat with a slight (up to 6%) increase in heating tariffs provide break-even activities and receive a larger investment resource in the form of a larger amount of depreciation. At the national level, the proposed mass complex modernization of heated districts can almost halve the consumption of natural gas by municipal heat and power engineering and to the same extent reduce emissions of harmful substances into the atmosphere. In addition, it becomes possible to significantly reduce the amount of subsidies from the budget for the payment of housing and communal services by the population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article is aimed at substantiating the measures to improve the state regulation of investment activities of heat supply companies, aimed at intensifying work on the modernization of district heating systems. In Ukraine, the need for state regulation of activities (including investment) in the field of heat and power engineering is established by the Law of Ukraine “On Heat Supply”. Such regulation is carried out by adopting regulations that are mandatory for use by all economic entities in the field of heat supply, and by providing control functions to the national regulator and local governments. The article analyzes Procedures for development, approval, coordination and approval of investment programs of municipal heat companies which are now in force in Ukraine. The analysis of current regulations has made it possible to identify the main problems of the state regulation of investment activity: imperfection of planning; complexity of development, justification, approval and control of investment programs; and a complicated mechanism for financing investment activities. According to the results of the research, the following ways to improve the state regulation of investment activity of the enterprises working in the municipal heat power engineering are offered: transition from short-term to medium- and long-term planning of investment activity; simplification of the current procedures for approval and adoption of investment programs; further decentralization of investment management and granting all powers to local governments; dismissal of the obligation for each measure and investment program as a whole to be economically efficient. A local authority should be entitled to independently choose the priorities for designing an investment program, e.g.: to improve the quality or reliability of heat supply, or to reduce tariffs; to simplify procedures of monitoring the implementation of investment programs, to give a heat supply company more independence in spending funds received under the investment program. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]