Last week, the Law of Ukraine on amendments to the Law of Ukraine “On the Energy Efficiency in Buildings” was published, in particular, significant changes were made to the procedures for thermal modernization of buildings and the procedure for certification of energy auditors. Thus, Article 9 of this law abolished the right of university commissions to conduct examinations and issue attestation certificates of energy auditors, granting this right to professional qualification centers (PQCs), which can be created by various organizations accredited according to the rules of the National Qualifications Agency (NQA).
Among the innovations, there is the requirement to indicate in the application for accreditation the name of the professional standard, by whom, and when it was approved. There is no standard for the profession of an energy auditor, but the procedure for developing and approving professional standards was changed in May of this year.
To discuss the introduction of this procedure for the energy auditor profession, an online meeting was organized with the participation of a wide range of specialists and experts from the Ministry of Communities and Territories Development (Ukraine), the NAC, the German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ), and other organizations. Employees of the University’s Center for Energy Efficiency Management were invited to the meeting, the director of the Center, Anatoliy Kozlenko, took an active part in the discussions, he noted that the lack of a professional standard for an energy auditor makes it impossible even to submit a package of documents for accreditation of a qualification center. The procedure for developing and approving the standard itself is quite lengthy and does not have a normative definition of the time of creation.
Only after this unspecified time of creating the standard, the institution of higher education has the right to submit an application, the term of consideration of which is also quite long. Even the legally prescribed 12 months for the relevant changes from attestation to certification cannot guarantee the completion of all procedures.
The situation can be corrected by granting permission to indicate the qualification characteristics (and not the professional standard) of the energy auditor in the application for accreditation that also describe the requirements for this profession, the implementation and confirmation of which have already been received by hundreds of energy auditors registered in the Unified State Electronic System in the construction sector (USESCS) on the DIIA portal and performed hundreds of energy audits of buildings without a formalized standard.
Only after the creation of the professional standard of the energy auditor, it should be entered into the corresponding application form of the NAС.
In addition, the University’s attestation commission has been also included in the USESCS of the DIIA portal, it has all the access keys and the right to act there thanks to the focused efforts of the specialist of the Energy Efficiency Center (EEC) of the university of Mykhailo Sheremet, who also took part in this meeting.
Next. Accreditation is provided on a paid basis, and the method of determining the cost has fairly conditional criteria. The current certification system did not provide for payment for its creation, the cost of the energy auditor’s certificate will increase significantly, and the cost of energy audit of buildings will increase accordingly.
During the discussion of this new topic, practical recommendations were given in her presentation by the consultant of the GIZ project, doctor of sciences in public administration, professor Nataliya Oliynyk, who visited the Energy Efficiency Center more than once. She developed the stages of implementation, the creation of a working group for the development of the standard, its registration in the NAС, and its approval.
Such changes made it necessary to suspend the prepared proposal to the rector regarding the submission of an application for accreditation on the basis of the University Efficiency Center. At the same time, the center’s specialists continue to study and monitor the current state of affairs in this matter.
You can find more details by following the links:
https://zakon.rada.gov.ua/laws/show/2392-20#Text
16.08.2022
