Posted on : 11/1/2016

On October 11^th 2016 the minister of mining and energy Mr Aleksandar Antic ceremonially put the Serbian Energy Efficiency Center in operation. The Center is located at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering in Belgrade. Establishment of the Center was supported by the Project „Enhancement of Energy Management System in Energy Consumption Sectors in the Republic of Serbia”, which has been implemented for three years in scope of cooperation between the Ministry of Mining and Energy and the Japan International Cooperation Agency – JICA. The objective of the project is to establish energy management system in Serbia in line with the Law on Efficient Use of Energy (The Official Gazette of RS, number 25/13). Center will serve as a training facility for energy managers and energy auditors.

The Law defines the energy management system in the Republic of Serbia. The energy management system includes a broad set of regulatory, organizational, promotional, technical and other measures and activities which are determined and implemented by the different actors involved in this system, within their scope of competences, including public administration bodies and designated parties of the system. The subjects of the energy management system include the Government of the Republic of Serbia, the ministry in charge of energy, designated parties of the energy management system, energy managers and energy auditors. The designated parties of the energy management system include companies in industrial and commercial sector, if they consume more energy than the quantity prescribed by the Government as well as bodies of public administration and other authorities of the Republic of Serbia, bodies of the autonomous province, and bodies of units of local self-government with population exceeding 20,000 and other public services which use publicly owned buildings.

The basic obligation of the designated parties of the energy management system is to appoint the necessary number of energy managers who successfully completed the training, passed the examination and received the relevant license issued by the ministry in charge of energy.

The subjects of the energy management system include also energy auditors who can be legal or physical persons inscribed in the registry of authorized energy auditors maintained by the ministry in charge of energy. The key function of energy auditors is to perform energy audits of buildings and facilities in order to enable designated parties of energy management system and energy managers to have specialized professional support during the collection of data, undertaking energy efficiency review of buildings, facilities and processes, and proposing measures to increase energy efficiency. Energy auditors are obliged after undertaking the energy audit, to provide in written form the energy audit report document.

Like in the case of energy managers, it is prescribed that energy auditors shall attend the six-day training which they shall finish by taking the professional examination. The training is to be organized by the ministry in charge of energy, and the ministry shall issue relevant energy auditor licenses to participants who pass this examination. The same ministry shall also maintain a registry of licensed energy auditors.

Founding and equipping the Center as well as technical assistance for installation of donated equipment and measuring systems have been provided by the Government of Japan. The total value of donation was 700.000 USD.