Increasing the number of energy efficiency projects approved for financing in the framework of the Regional Operational Programme 2021-2027 of the Centru Development Region
Partners: Alba Local Energy Agency - ALEA (Project Partner 4 of S3UNICA)
Type: Implementation of new projects
The Action planned by ALEA is Increasing the number of energy efficiency projects approved for financing in the framework of the Regional Operational Programme 2021-2027 of the Centru Development Region. The Regional Stakeholders Meeting held in Romania outlined the necessity of improving local expertise in elaborating good quality proposals for energy efficiency policies and the capacity of universities to prioritise the actions and the energy efficiency measures to meet the evaluators requirements.
This Action Plan consists of two subactions. The first one is Increasing the capacity of universities to assess the energy efficiency of buildings, prioritise measures for energy efficiency works using Self-Assessment Tool as basis for writing quality proposals within the Regional Operational Programme 2021-2027.
The reason behind this goal is the need for proven methodologies in order to assess the energy state of infrastructures and therefore facilitate the prioritisation of investments. The background came from two best practices shared by the Lappeenranta University of Technology and the University of Udine respectively. The energy efficiency strategy applied to the LUT Green Campus makes use of a Smart Readiness Indicator to establish prioritisation of investments: the experience showed how the application of a SRI in a self-assessment process is effective no matter the complexity of the energy network and the type of technology. Similarly, self-assessment methodologies using a SRI were successfully implemented by the University of Udine on its infrastructures. The activities will unfold as follows: events and bilateral meetings allows to present the SAT methodology to the universities of the region; a training section is organised for interested universities which submit a project proposal and a continuous support is be provided during their work; universities identify the most suitable campus buildings applying a prioritisation procedure based on the RSI; the outcomes of each university is discussed in a final workshop.
The second subaction foreseen is Increase the capacity of universities to submit quality proposals for energy efficient works on their university campus buildings by creating an expert evaluation framework. In fact, it results that projects submitted under the previous ROP 2017-2020 were often rejected because of similar reasons, that is few experience in properly meet the call requirements. An example of possible solution was provided by the Greenreality Network – public private partnerships, a business oriented network of economic and environment actors which includes members of companies, municipalities and research institutions and provides advice on projects in order to enhance – among others – energy transition and growth. PP4 engage in promoting the creation of a working group with different stakeholders - including universities - which should act as an experts’ panel to support projects proposals. The panel is envisaged to include five members. An online platform will collect project ideas as well as data, existing case studies and evaluation tools and will host a discussion forum relying the working group experts to the project applicants. Finally, it is foreseen a working section to ameliorate the actual projects proposals for the ROP 2021-2027 and assistance during the application process.
ALEA will realise its ambitious Action Plan involving the participation of six universities.
