ENERGY MANAGEMENT SYSTEM IN SERBIA
Posted on : 10/16/2018
In the period from 1 to 4 October 2018, a study visit to Croatia on the topic of energy management in the public sector was organized for representatives of three designated local self-government units which are, in accordance with the Law on Efficient Use of Energy, obliged to intoduce the energy management system. The following representatives of cities of Kragujevac, Pančevo, and Kruševac participated in the study visit:
The aim of the visit was for professionals from local self-government units to be acquainted with practices in energy management and utilization of the Energy Management Information System in the Republic of Croatia, more particularly at the level of municipalities, cities, and counties.
The study visit to Croatia was organized by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) within the project ”Removing Barriers to Promote and Support Energy Management System in Municipalities throughout Serbia”.
The development path of the energy management system in Croatia was launched nine years ago within a similar project, ”Removing Barriers to Energy Efficiency in Croatia”, implemented by the UNDP Office in Croatia. For the purpose of this project, UNDP developed a specialised information system, i.e. the Energy Management Information System (EMIS) which was later assumed by similar UNDP projects world-wide. Following the implementation of local adjustments, these information systems are now successfully used in Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Russia, Ukraine, and Armenia.
In the course of the first part of the visit, the participants were staying in Istria, where they visited the City of Žminj and company Rudan, after which they visited the City of Poreč and the County of Istria.
At Rudan company, the participants were introduced to the main activities of the company: ESCO projects, monitoring of energy and water consumption, energy and water consumption management systems, facility maintenance, detection of water leakages in large systems, etc. In the Republic of Croatia, Rudan is the leading company in the area of energy and water saving using to ESCO model, and the first Croatian company which has tackled this sort of business, both in the private and public sector. The company implements investments in refurbishment and optimization of infrastructure, introduction of technical novelties, and rationalization of consumption in business processes and facilities, which contributes to significant savings in consumption of energy and water, while financial effects are shared with clients. Company Rudan is the only company at the Croatian market which offers full ESCO projects, from analysis, planning, and financing, to construction and maintenance.
The advantage of ESCO project is in the fact that in the course of all stages of a large project, the user of the service cooperates with only one company, which considerably decreases costs of energy efficiency projects. ESCO projects also encompass all energy systems at the set location, which enables optimum selection of measures with a favourable investment-saving ratio. The aim of the project is to decrease costs of energy and maintenance, whereas installation of more efficient equipment and optimization of energy systems ensures repayment of the investment through generation of savings within a defined period of time, in line with the contract between the user and the ESCO company. When the investment is repaid, the partner company exits the project and leaves all benefits from the project to the client.
Energy management for larger partners also implies supervision and management of energy systems, on-line monitoring of energy/water consumption, and savings through modification of energy systems.
So far, company Rudan has saved more than 400 million kunas for its clients. The company has implemented the largest comprehensive energy restoration project in Croatia. The company is also highly specialized in saving of water for all categories of consumers, especially the largest and most complex ones.
In the course of the visit, the participants had the opportunity to tour the business facility of the company located at the newly-constructed passive building, the first of the kind in Croatia.
On the following day the participants in the visit were guests of the City of Poreč, Municipal Company Parentium, and the County of Istria. The conference “Exchange of experiences in energy management through the use of the Energy Management Information System (EMIS)” was organized at the City Hall of the City of Poreč. The conference was opened by the deputy mayor of Poreč, Nadia Štifanić Dobrilović, who welcomed the participants and stated:
“We are exceptionally glad that the Department for systematic energy management of the Agency for legal transactions and brokerage in real estate recommended Poreč as a City which is an example of good practices. In the last four years, the City of Poreč-Parenzo has invested almost 4.8 million kunas in more than 30 projects in the area of energy efficiency, sustainable development, e-mobility, and environmental protection, our of which as much as 2.6 million kunas was withdrawn from various funds for such projects. All these projects resulted in significant savings, primarily in facilities such as schools, kindergartens, and sport halls. Beside this, we assist citizens to become a part of these “green” projects, either through energy restoration of family houses, or through elimination of asbestos from our environment. What is ahead of us is composition of project documents for restoration of the Upper kindergarten, as well as new EU projects for introduction of electric means of transport. Together with numerous projects implemented and the award ''Smart city 2017'', this is but one piece of evidence and confirmation that the City of Poreč is truly the City suiting its citizens, and that in the end endeavour and hard work is recognized, not only at local level, but much more broadly“.
Besides the guests from Serbia, the conference was also attended by representatives of the Croatian Government Real Estate Agency (APN), whose Department for systematic energy management has been implementing EMIS on behalf of the state of Croatia. The conference was also attended by the representative of the County of Istria, as well as the representative of Istrian primary healthcare centers which have been implementing the energy management system for almost a decade, and have been using EMIS actively.
Experiences of the City of Poreč were presented by Gordana Lalić, manager of the Municipal Company Parentium d.o.o., who explained:
“As of today, the City of Poreč-Parenzo has the total of 36 recorded facilities in its EMIS system, out of which two are almost zero-energy facilities (so-called nZEB facilities – facilities which have very high energy performances, i.e. whose need for energy is very small or close to zero), these two facilities being our elementary school and the sports hall Finida. Besides this, the system includes 146 public lighting hubs, 260 measuring points, 23,295 bills for water and energy, and 2,526 meter readings for this year. Data entered into the EMIS system is used for a range of calculations, analyses, and controls which enable us to understand how and what for we use energy and water in individual buildings, compare individual buildings with similar buildings, and identify undesirable, excessive, and irrational consumption. We use these in good time to prevent occurrence of undesirable and unnecessary costs. Also, based on the information obtained through conducted analyses, it is possible to identify necessary measures to increase energy efficiency, where results of numerous projects implemented at the territory of Poreč in several last years may be found, and implementation of energy efficiency measures which finally resulted in energy and financial savings, i.e. release of funds for further investments, and launching of momentum for self-financing of projects from achieved savings “.
Silvano Cukon spoke about the importance of the database in preparation of projects to apply for EU funds. He mentioned the successes of the County of Istria in the process of withdrawal of funds from state and EU structural funds.
Concrete examples of use of the system and monitoring of consumption of energy and water, as well as savings achieved due to this in Istrian primary healthcare centres were given in the presentation by Denis Grgorinić.
The so-far development of EMIS and results of its implementation in Croatia were presented by Iva Fakin, assistant manager of APN, while the development of the mobile application mISGE was presented by Valentina Madžarević, advisor to APN.
Representatives of Serbia also presented their work, which was followed by discussion and vivid exchange of information which indicated that issues in implementation of energy management are similar, and that representatives of the two countries may help each other a lot through exchange of experiences and ideas.
The participants spent the third day of the study tour in Zagreb, where they met representatives of the APN, who presented Croatian experiences in implementation of energy rehabilitation projects financed from the Croatian Fund for environmental protection and energy efficiency. Also, APN consultant Ivan Šerić explained the legal framework for implementation of ESCO projects in Croatia and presented results achieved so far in the implementation of this model of project financing.
The study tour was ended with the visit to the Energy and Environmental Protection Institute – Ekonerg. This institute used to operate within Croatian Electric Power Industry (HEP); following its separation, it excelled as the leading research, designing, and consulting company focused on energy and utility infrastructure, as well as environmental protection. Company Ekonerg was presented by Krešimir Brckan, manager of the Department for maintenance management systems. The core activities of the company are research, designing, construction, development of measuring systems, laboratory analyses, management, maintenance, and decommissioning of large plants. Besides, the company has a developed IT sector which is active in development of various IT systems, among others the energy consumption monitoring and management system.
Having in mind that company Ekonerg is the main designer of the EMIS system, the participants in the study tour took the opportunity to have an interactive discussion with IT experts Hrvoje Tonković and Arsen Torbarina on concrete issues in relation to implementation of the energy management information system.
Presentations:
Information Centre for Energy Management
e-mail: sem@mre.gov.rs
tel: 011 360 4489Public call 2017 NEW ___________________________ Public call 2016