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The Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine's parliament, on Thursday passed a bill on commercial accounting of public utilities, which provides for the mandatory installation of house meters for heat, hot and cold water in non-residential (before October 1, 2017) and residential (before October 1, 2018) buildings.
Respective bill No. 4901 was supported by 238 MPs at the required minimum of 226 votes.
During the discussion of the bill, the deputies supported the amendments, according to which the costs of installing, replacing and maintaining the meters incurred by the network operator (the supply company) will be reimbursed at the expense of consumers.
Read alsoCabinet to allocate UAH 15 bln to repay to energy companies debts on subsidiesAccording to the explanatory note, the draft law provides for the introduction of compulsory commercial metering of heat, hot and tap water, since only 22% of apartment buildings in Ukraine conduct house metering of heat consumption. It is also noted that a low level of energy accounting limits the possibilities for their effective use.
The draft law obliges consumers to equip all buildings connected to heat and water supply networks with domestic hot and cold water meters. The operator of external networks will have to establish such meters for non-residential premises until October 1, 2017, and for residential ones until October 1, 2018. Apartment owners will also have to install meters until that time.
The draft law provides for mandatory instrumental accounting of utility services (at the entrance to the building), as well as distribution accounting (door to door).
The deadline for the introduction of commercial heat metering is set within a year from the date of entry into force of the law, commercial water accounting is set within two years, while the distribution accounting is set within three years.
Read alsoHot water in Kyiv may be partly unavailable until October because of gas debtsThe adoption of the law will allow a reduction in the amount of unaccounted water flow in plumbing systems by 75% and reducing the consumption of heat within 1-3 years by an average of 15-20%, which in turn will reduce gas consumption and will lower greenhouse gas emissions.
It also prohibits the commissioning of new buildings that are not equipped with meters.
According to the document, after the installation of meters, the consumption of heat, hot and tap water should be calculated only upon meter readings.