On Thursday, December 9, 2021, the final international seminar "Energy Efficiency and Energy Audit" organized in the frame of the CBCSmartEnergy project (2SOFT/1.2/52) took place in the meeting-room of the Academic Council of Uzhhorod National University. UzhNU project partners are Stefan Cel Mare University in Suceava and the International Association of Regional Development Institutions IARDI.

Uzhhorod National University has been working on the implementation of the Cross-Border Cooperation Smart Energy project since March 2020. The project aims to increase the use of new technologies and innovations in the field of renewable energy, provided by promotion and support to research and innovations in a sustainable way in the border regions of Ukraine and Romania and create a powerful platform for joint research and studies in the field of renewable energy and resource efficiency.

The seminar was opened by the project manager, Vice-Rector of Uzhhorod National University, prof. Myroslava Lendel: "It’s a great opportunity for us today to gather at the final seminar of the project Cross-Border Cooperation Smart Energy. I am glad to welcome all our guests who are with us in the meeting-room, as well as our partners, teachers and students who are with us online. We hope that everyone, regardless of the distance, will enjoy the results of the project. It began when we first heard the word "Covid-19", at the beginning of the pandemic. And we immediately had to switch to the online format. However, this did not stop us. During the whole period, we organized a lot of events, conducted energy audits of the buildings, and our experts had the opportunity to get acquainted with the technologies at the University of Suceava. Moreover, one of our objectives was to raise the awareness of the public, NGOs and businesses in the field of energy efficiency.

Cross-Border Cooperation Smart Energy project is coming to an end, so Myroslava Lendel presented the results that were achieved to the audience:

• Smart Energy innovation centers and laboratories have been opened in Ukraine and Romania;
• energy audits have been performed in university buildings and communities in the region;
• plans for energy saving measures with the use of new technologies and innovative solutions based on the conducted energy audits have been developed;
• students from Ukraine and Romania have gained practical skills and knowledge in the field of modern energy technologies;
• a new training course on energy management has been launched at Uzhhorod National University;
• a modern energy-efficient lighting system has been installed in the buildings of two faculties of Uzhhorod National University;

• all Uzhhorod National University buildings have been equipped with "smart" electricity meters, which transmit their data through the network to a single control center for the analysis of electricity consumption.

Prof. Radu-Dumitru Pentiuc, project coordinator from the main beneficiary, Stefan Cel Mare University in Suceava, also addressed the participants with his welcoming speech: “We are pleased to welcome our Ukrainian partners and we are very happy to have done such a great job. We appreciate that UzhNU has demonstrated its initiative and desire to implement this project. We want to emphasize the importance of its results. Our main goal was to increase the use of new technologies for saving energy resources in the border regions of Ukraine and Romania. It is great that the project has created an Internet platform that will provide an opportunity to cooperate in the future. It should also be noted that we have achieved positive results in the general economic sense, we are talking about improving the quality of life of society. It is important to stress that it was an international project, and together we found new solutions to save energy and other resources.

Natalia Nosa, Beneficiary #2, manager of the International Association of Regional Development Institutions IARDI, also joined the seminar: “It is a great pleasure to see the teams of Uzhhorod National University and Stefan Cel Mare University in Suceava together at the final stage of the project. Despite all the challenges, we have achieved excellent results, primarily due to our partnership. We even visited University of Suceava to get acquainted with the laboratories, visited our communities and signed cooperation agreements. I am also proud to have the opportunity to present the results of our activities on international platforms.”During the event, many interesting reports were made. In particular, PhD. Eng. Dumitru Chernushka from Stefan Cel Mare University in Suceava dwelt on energy efficiency measures suitable for the residential sector, and PhD. Eng. Eugen Hopulele reported on increasing energy efficiency at the swimming and physiotherapy complex of the Stefan cel Mare University of Suceava by using a cogeneration power plant.

Prof. Valentyn Ivanytskyi, research activities coordinator of the Cross-Border Cooperation Smart Energy project, who was actively working with students of UzhNU during the whole period of project implementation, focused on the information component of the formation of students' practical principles of energy saving. He also announced the opening of a new specialty at Uzhhorod National University - "Power Engineering and Energy Management". Taras Zayats, the Head of the Department of Electronic Systems of UzhNU and Mykhailo Riaboshchuk, Associate Professor of the Department of Instrument Emgineering of UzhNU, and the guarantor of the educational program told about the new specialty in more detail in their reports.

Students themselves had the opportunity to share their experience of participating in the project. Andrii Dius and Vitalii Vasiuta, students of Automation and Computer-Integrated Technologies of the Faculty of Engineering, prepared a report “Conducting an energy audit of university buildings and analysis of its results."

Anatolii Hychka, the Chief Power Engineer of Uzhhorod National University, and a member of the project team focused on the role of intelligent electricity metering systems in improving the energy efficiency of enterprises and Oleh Luksha, NGO Agency for Local Development and Information Resources “EUROPOLIS”, focalized on the Energy Strategy of Ukraine.

Moreover, participants of the friendly project implemented by Uzhhorod National University NESICA "New Energy Solutions in the Carpathian Area", Vice-Rector of UzhNU Dmytro Soima, shared the project strategies, and Ihor Chychura, senior lecturer of the Department of Instrument Making, who presented the report: "Automation and intelligent technologies as an important area of ​​energy saving".