Posted on : 5/30/2018

The second conference on energy efficiency with the topic “Intensifying of planning and implementation of energy projects” was held in the building of the Vojvodina Assembly on 30 May 2018. The conference was organized by the Provincial Secretariat for Energy, Construction, and Transport, in cooperation with the Vojvodina Energy Efficiency Cluster and Hungarian National Trading House.

The conference was intended for representatives of local self-government units, institutions, and companies engaged in investments, accompanying operations within project preparation, contracting, implementation, and finally, control of energy efficiency projects. Besides representatives from Serbia, participants from Hungary, Slovakia, Czech Republic, and Slovenia, as well as UNDP representatives also presented their experiences in this area.

The conference was opened by the Provincial Secretary for energy, construction, and transport Nenad Grbić, who emphasized the importance of energy efficiency for Serbia and the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina.

“In this area, significant challenges are ahead of us. On the one hand, the population has grown by more than three times, while the need for fuels has grown by more than 30 times; on the other, we are faced with challenges relating to environmental protection, i.e. implementation and use of fuels”, said Nenad Grbić.

He emphasized that, according to official statistics, more than a half of the population is willing to implement energy efficiency measures should they be supported by the society, institutions, and the state itself.

“Our role is to inform and educate the population in this direction”, said Grbić and stated that windows and doors in households and institutions are 30 years old on the average.

As it was stated by Grbić, it is necessary to define a joint approach and offer end users information on possibilities of financing and implementation of energy efficiency measures. “In a nutshell, to upgrade horizontal and vertical communication among different state and provincial institutions, towns, municipalities, and different business entities”, said Grbić.

The Secretary also added that several examples of public-private partnership would also be presented within the conference. According to Grbić, 62 of such partnerships have been confirmed so far, while 27 partnerships have been contracted at the total value of 1.8 billion dinars.

“However, what is not good when we speak about public-private partnership is the fact that only six partnerships imply 97% of the total value of contracted partnerships, out of which the largest part relates to public lighting, passenger transport, and waste management”, said Grbić.

The conference comprised two sessions. The first session was dedicated to increasing of competitiveness of medium, small, and micro companies through clusterization, excellence, and networking.

The second session discussed models and experiences of local self-government units using funds for energy efficiency, funds, ESCO companies, business banks, other investors, and public-private partnership contractors.

The UNDP/GEF Project “Removing Barriers to Promote and Support Energy Management Systems in Municipalities throughout Serbia” was presented by Dragan Urošević, Project Coordinator.