MANAGING ENERGY EFFICIENCY AND ENERGY SAVING BASED ON THE UNIVERSITY ENERGY INNOVATION KNOWLEDGE HUB

Abstract

This paper offers an argument for the need to providing further research on improving energy efficiency and searching for modern management methods based on the university energy innovation knowledge hub. The findings have revealed that the specific energy consumption in the Ukrainian economy is unjustifiably higher than that of other European countries and countries with transitive economies. It is noted that economic losses are becoming increasingly apparent in the context of high cost of imported energy resources, low level of energy security, incompetitiveness of industries and significant environmental wastes. The research methodology entails the principle of studying and summarizing factual data on enhancing energy management and quality management systems, as well as the university documentation. To attain the research agenda, the following methods have been employed: the system and structural analysis techniques, management theory, methods of diagnostics and identification, graph theory as well as energy balance methods. The study presents a mechanism of energy efficiency and energy saving management based on the university energy innovation knowledge hub. The findings demonstrate that such a mechanism is able to overcome the rejection by economic actors of innovation technologies in general and energy efficient technologies in particular. The proposed mechanism of energy efficiency and energy saving management based on the university energy innovation hub challenges the implementation of specific economic measures that should include such elements as incentives (motivators) for energy saving, energy market infrastructure and energy efficient technology, energy projects funding sources and tools. The conclusions resume that in modern realia, higher education institutions should promote a shift from a formally declared energy saving policy towards a University energy efficiency economy pattern as an energy autonomy driver, building a strategy for combining indicative and market functions in ensuring energy efficiency.