Modelling of Decision-Making Criteria on the Implementation of Energy-Saving Projects at the Expense of Borrowed Funds

At present, loans are the main external source of financing energy-saving projects of enterprises. At the same time, taking out loans requires a preliminary detailed assessment of the consequences of their involvement. In turn, such an assessment should be based on scientifically based decision-making criteria on the implementation of energy-saving projects at the expense of borrowed funds. Taking this into account, the purpose of this study was to model the criteria by which it is possible to make reasonable and effective management decisions regarding loan financing of energy-saving projects at enterprises. The conducted research showed that it is possible to propose a certain system of criteria for evaluating the feasibility of implementing energy-saving projects at enterprises at the expense of borrowed funds. At the same time, the types of such criteria were highlighted, namely: preliminary auxiliary criteria, which are features, without the fulfillment of which it is possible to claim in advance that loan financing of projects will be inappropriate; the main criterion, which is the result of comparing the amounts of capitalized profit, which the enterprise will receive, respectively, after and before the implementation of the energy-saving project (projects); additional auxiliary criteria, which are features that are additionally introduced into consideration by persons who will make final investment decisions. These features supplement the main criterion. Without the fulfillment of the corresponding additional ones, a positive decision based on the main criterion will not be considered to be a final one. In the process of carrying out the research, data was collected from a number of Ukrainian enterprises, which during 2020–2021 were considering the possibility of loan financing of projects to reduce natural gas consumption. At the same time it turned out that a significant part of the unrealized projects (about 40%) was screened out at the stage of checking compliance with the previous criteria. Such a share is especially significant in the investigated enterprises that manufacture metal products. As for the additional criteria, less than 20% of not implemented projects were inspected according to them.