Report - UNDP Russia

Box 5.1. Programme of the Ministry of Education and Scienceof the Russian Federation: ‘Integrated Solutions for SavingEnergy and Resources to Promote Innovative Developmentin Various Sectors of the Economy’Russia’s largest consumers of energy in thefederal government sector are the Ministry ofDefence, the Ministry of Education and Science, theFederal Penitentiary Service of the Ministry of Justice,the Ministry of Healthcare and Social Development,and the Ministry of Internal Affairs. The largestgovernment sector consumers at regional and locallevel are educational and healthcare facilities.Spending by budget-financed organizationson utilities in 2007 exceeded 180 billion roubles andthe figure for 2009 is expected to be in excess of 260billion roubles. The share of utilities in total expensesof the budget system is 2%, but as much as 5-10% ofregional and local budgets have to be allocated forutilities. In 2009 almost 8 billion roubles were spenton energy supplies for and maintenance of Russia’sbudget-financed facilities (including those in localgovernment ownership). In order to cover theseexpenditures Russia has to export at least 45 milliontonnes of oil each year at a price of USD 50 per barrelor 65 billion cubic metres of natural gas (assumingthat half of revenues from oil & gas export are taken bythe budget).At least 500 billion roubles would be neededto modernize all of Russia’s budget-funded facilities,including measures to make their use of utilities moreefficient. The budget system is unable to allocate sucha sum for this purpose. However, the amount ofmoney needed for such modernization could besignificantly reduced if mechanisms wereimplemented, by which the savings would be used tofinance the modernisation. Strain on the budget couldalso be reduced through partnerships between stateorganizations and private firms, by which part of thefinancing costs would be met by the private sector.Russia has considerable experience inimproving the energy efficiency of budget-financedfacilities. Measures by the Ministry of Education andScience (prior to 2004 the Ministry of Education) areparticularly worthy of note, and represent the first andso far the only consistent policy effort by a Russiangovernment ministry to improve the energy efficiencyof institutions under its control.In 1999 the Ministry of Education developedand implemented a five-year energy savingprogramme to create a system for effectivemanagement of energy use at educationalinstitutions. Under this programme, an infrastructurefor implementing a single energy-saving policy at alleducational institutions across Russia was created onthe basis of leading universities. The emphasis was onspecific energy-saving measures at federaleducational institutions.In 2000–2005 more than 1000 educationalinstitutions in various regions of Russia, including thecities of Moscow and St.Petersburg, implemented theprogramme, by which energy consumers establishedbusiness accounting systems, began introducingequipment and mechanisms for regulating heatconsumption, and developed and implementedintegrated low-cost measures for reducing energylosses at higher education and vocational trainingfacilities. An automated research and informationsystem was created for accounting and control overenergy consumption at educational institutions,which were under the control of the Ministry ofEducation (more recently through the Ministry’ssubsidiary organisation, the Federal Agency forEducation).Energy certification of facilities owned byeducational institutions in 2000–2005 as well assystematization of energy consumption accountingand analysis, installation of energy saving equipmentand more efficient energy use enabled the educationsector to reduce its energy consumption, achievesavings in energy consumption per student, and saveconsiderable amounts of money by paying less forelectricity and heat. Educational institutions weregiven only one year to achieve payback of funds,which had been provided in order to implement theenergy-saving programme. A regional statisticscollection network was set up to monitor actualconsumption of and payments for electricity and heatby educational institutions. This made it possible tocalculate average energy consumption per studentand compare the declared energy consumption limitswith actual consumption. Prototypes of newequipment and technologies were developed to helpreduce consumption of electricity, heat and naturalgas by educational institutions.103