Website of State Energy Efficiency Agency

Kitsoft has developed a web portal for the State Agency on Energy Efficiency and Energy Saving of Ukraine (SAEE), a key government agency in the field of energy efficiency and alternative fuels. 

Image: Home page of the official website of the State Agency on Energy Efficiency and Energy Saving. 

Since October 2022, Russia has conducted more than a thousand strikes on Ukrainian energy infrastructure facilities. According to a report by the International Energy Agency, as of May 2024, 70% of Ukraine's thermal generating capacity was destroyed or occupied. The damage to our country's energy sector is estimated at USD 11.4 billion.

An important component of the new Ukrainian energy system should be the development of alternative generation sources. Energy independence and energy efficiency are the drivers of economic recovery for communities and the entire country. 

The State Agency on Energy Efficiency and Energy Saving of Ukraine is responsible for implementing a comprehensive and integrated state policy in this area. The new web portal of the Agency will help to increase the accessibility, efficiency and transparency of energy services, as well as develop energy saving initiatives across the country. 

In order to stimulate the development of distributed energy generation, the Government of Ukraine has developed and is implementing a whole package of important decisions and financial programmes. In order to facilitate these initiatives and provide users with convenient access to up-to-date information on government policies, support programmes and industry news, the SAEE needed a modern and user-friendly web portal. 

The agency's existing website was created in 2013 and had become technically, visually and morally outdated. This made it difficult to communicate effectively with users. 

Therefore, the Kitsoft team focused on creating a new interactive online platform with a responsive design that meets the requirements of Ukrainian legislation and reflects the principles of openness and transparency of the State Agency on Energy Efficiency and Energy Saving. 

The key objective in developing the web portal was to introduce a new, user-friendly, and logical structure. To make the information on the portal intuitive and easy to navigate, we grouped it into seven logically structured sections in the top menu. This menu is flexible and can be adjusted as needed.

To ensure a seamless user experience, we implemented a responsive design. The portal now displays correctly on all screen types and mobile devices, with pages automatically scaling based on the user’s browser.

The State Energy Efficiency Agency web portal is inclusive and complies with WCAG accessibility standards and Ukrainian legislation. It provides fair and convenient access for all users, regardless of age, physical abilities, or technical expertise. To make the portal accessible to users with visual, hearing, motor, speech, and cognitive impairments, the design incorporates the necessary level of contrast, font sizes, and visual elements. Compliance with these requirements has been confirmed using the automated Oobee (Accessibility Site Scanner) tool.

For interactive engagement, the portal features search functionality for pages and documents, a news subscription option, and contact forms. All pages include a print-friendly version, an export function, and social media sharing buttons.

To efficiently transfer content from the old website to the new one, we developed an import converter that automatically migrated files and news, significantly speeding up the migration process.

Additionally, to provide easy access to documents, we integrated the portal with Megapolis.DocNet, a system widely used by government organizations in Ukraine. This integration allows the portal to receive documents from the system and make them available for users to view.

The target audience of the State Energy Efficiency Agency web portal is quite diverse. In addition to direct electricity consumers (households and businesses), the portal serves government officials at both national and local levels, international partners, research and budgetary institutions, educational establishments, media representatives, and civil society organizations. This diversity was carefully considered during the development phase to ensure that each user group can easily navigate the portal.

For the international audience and English-speaking users, an English version of the portal is now available. Different language versions' content structure may vary, which was also considered during development.

The sections for the three key target audience groups — consumers, businesses, and the public — are prominently featured in the main navigation menu.

To simplify access to essential information, a dedicated "Useful Links" block has been added to the homepage.

Image: A block with useful links on the SAEE home page. 

The home page also contains blocks with the latest news and upcoming events of the State Agency on Energy Efficiency and Energy Saving, targeted support programmes for households, businesses, development of alternative energy sources and available investments.  

For the client, it was important to have a flexible and diverse functionality for the web portal, allowing easy publication of new information and changes in case of new initiatives, changes in priorities, etc.

To achieve this, we implemented a convenient administrative panel (CMS) for content management on the web portal. This will allow the client to easily create various types of pages in the future. Specifically, unique pages for individual projects, such as exhibitions, forums, project maps, etc.

The updated CMS core, based on the latest version of October, makes the web portal even more secure and protected while also providing opportunities for future improvements.
This will help the State Energy Efficiency Agency independently modify the site when necessary and efficiently interact with users through the implemented features:

• Subscription to Agency news;
• Electronic form for citizen inquiries and public information requests;
• Media gallery for storing photos and videos from events;
• Public information accounting system and incoming correspondence search;
• Ability to share information on social media.

Image: Electronic form for citizens' appeals on the web portal of the State Agency on Energy Efficiency and Energy Saving. 

The team had only two months to develop the State Agency on Energy Efficiency and Energy Saving web portal and implement its main functionality. Normally, it would have been almost impossible to implement such a project in such a short time. However, thanks to the team's experience and the use of the Gov.ua package solution, the task was successfully completed.

The Gov.ua package is designed specifically for high-load government websites and takes into account the criteria and standards of their design in Ukraine. It meets most of our clients' requests and does not require a large number of modifications. This allows us to deploy the project in the shortest possible time. 

In addition to the standard functionality of Gov.ua, it can be customised to meet the needs of the customer. For example, we have implemented two additional plugins on the state agency's web portal: the Public Information Accounting System and the Incoming Correspondence Search. 

The Public Information Accounting System allows users to find the information they need among public data. To do this, users can use filters or search by keywords, type of document, its registration number, and date of registration. 

The web portal has implemented a search for incoming correspondence to enable users to monitor documents and information about them. It allows users to find the documents they need by key parameters: 

• Registration number
• Date of registration (selected via the calendar)
• Applicant's full name

The search results are displayed in a table that is constantly updated. 

The official website of the State Agency on Energy Efficiency and Energy Saving fully complies with cybersecurity requirements, as evidenced by the certificate of compliance with the organisation's standards at the time of issue. 

According to the test results, the website fully complies with cybersecurity requirements and is ready for use.

Customer Feedback

"Kitsoft has developed a modern and user-friendly web portal for the State Agency on Energy Efficiency and Energy Saving that fully meets our requirements. The project was implemented with security and scalability in mind. The team responded promptly to our requests and offered effective solutions. Thank you for your work."

— State Agency on Energy Efficiency and Energy Saving of Ukraine. 

For Reference

The web resource was created with the support of the United Nations Development Programme in Ukraine within the framework of the GEF/UNDP project "Removing Barriers to Energy Efficiency Investment in Public Buildings in Small and Medium-Sized Cities of Ukraine through the ESCO Mechanism".  

* According to the Ministry of Energy of Ukraine.