Alba Local Energy Agency – ALEA organised the regional kick-off meeting of the project SUPPORT in Alba Iulia on May 11th 2017.
There were 20 participants who attended the meeting mostly representatives of municipalities and of local institutions, however stakeholders from companies, universities and NGOs were also present.
The Alba Iulia kick-off event was organised as an interactive session having as goal feedback collection on experiences regarding difficulties and success stories of local and regional authorities when implementing energy efficiency strategies.
The meeting started with the presentation of SUPPORT project which proved to be a good discussion point as at the end of the presentation all participants welcomed such initiatives which address overcoming the difficulties they face in this domain. Municipality representatives showed great interest in energy efficiency in buildings and CO2 reduction as it is a still underdeveloped field in Romania needing a strong political commitment and financial resources in order to make things change.
The second part of the meeting was dedicated to exchanging ideas and sharing good practice cases and there were discussions on how important is to support energy efficiency initiatives with financial incentives, proper legislative framework and stakeholders involvement.
In this perspective 1 good practice case was presented, namely ANERGO the first regional Energy Observatory the first online platform for energy data sharing between local authorities and energy data providers for sustainable energy development. Also, an example of RES production system was presented to boost interest of local authorities in taking up innovative measures for CO2 reduction in public building. After the brief presentations, some conclusions were drawn:
The starting point of any energy related project is the political commitment which engages legislative initiatives and makes it possible to implement actions. Still a problem, also at national level is the high level of beaurocracy and lack of technical skills in the municipality staff.
A prerequisite for the achievement of energy efficiency CO2 reduction goals is to have a dedicated structure that deals with energy management
An energy observatory such as ANERGO in Alba County can also play a crucial role in energy efficiency and it is a great support in the elaboration of bankable projects.
Generally, Regional Operational Programmes represent important financing possibilities for the implementation of energy efficiency measures. There are also other types of funding that might be used such as: local and governmental funds, bank loans.
The third and final part was an opportunity to make a brief introduction of the first draft of a regional background analysis which represents the starting point of the SUPPORT process in further developing SEAPS and other energy efficiency instruments such as the Energy Masterplan of Alba County. Then it was explained that input is needed for this document from stakeholders asking them to share their experiences through a questionnaire. The SUPPORT stakeholders questionnaire was presented highlighting its role of collecting information needed for the elaboration of the Background Analysis document and also gathers data on already existing measures
The stakeholders present at the event ensured that they are keen on continuing good collaboration in the framework of the project and that they keep actively exchanging experiences and offer feedback on project related topics.
Pictures here
