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Newsletter #6 | October 2019
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ENERJ final international conference : "Energy Efficiency - a Good Beginning"
The final ENERJ conference was an opportunity to discuss with key players the results of the project and their relevance to a field of action that is as difficult as it is important: energy efficiency in buildings, with particular regard to public buildings. The Mediterranean area is experiencing a rapidly growing energy demand, partly due to cooling needs that will only increase with climate change and rapid urban development.
At the end of three years of work, the final conference of ENERJ project was held at the International Thessaloniki Fair on September 11, 2019.
“Energy Efficiency – a Good Beginning” was the title of the event indicating the end of ENERJ as the beginning of a new phase for energy efficiency in public buildings. After the presentation of the Interreg MED programme by Matoula Syropoulou from the Greek National Contact Point, Kostas Konstantinou, Project Manager of the Lead Partner Anatoliki S.A, took the floor and illustrated the contribution of ENERJ to the challenge of energy efficiency in public buildings, while Vasilis Takavakoglu from Eleana Pana, Region of North Aegean, presented the horizontal project MEDNICE and the added value of making the modular projects for energy efficiency in public buildings interact.
A most interesting case study, Fano urban climate regeneration plan, was presented by the Italian architect Tiziana Gallo. With a low cost procedure the project has created a database for public administrations and private actors to evaluate urban renewal measures with energy efficiency in buildings at the centre but also taking into account other factors, like urban green and mobility.
The two elements at the centre of ENERJ, Joint Actions and the database with energy data of public buildings were taken up in the next two presentations. Iakovos Sarigiannis, General Director of Anatoliki demonstrated the added value of forming an energy community for the three cities involved and Margherita Carè from the Metropolitan City of Rome Capital showed the functions and potentials of the ENERJ data platform. The latter is complementary to the SISMA tool, presented by Martin Murovec from GOLEA in the sense that the data obtained from the ENERJ platform can be fed into the SISMA tool to simulate investment costs and payback time as a basis for producing for ESCOs attractive “packages” of buildings for energy retrofitting.
The conference gave an exhaustive overview of the achievements of ENERJ and at the same time shed light on the activities ENERJ has set in motion which will come to bear in the next months and years. The final conference of ENERJ will not be the final word. The ENERJ database will be freely accessible for the next five years to be of use for the many local entities whose data have been and will be inserted there to move ahead one of the most important fields of action for energy transformation – energy efficiency in the building sector.
For further information: project@enerj-med.eu
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Enerj web platform
The ENERJ web platform is designed to help local authorities and enterprises to be aware of the energy characteristics of the local public buildings, and of the actions that local authorities have committed to undertake, such as those included in their Sustainable Energy Action Plans (SEAPs). It is a geographic database of energy data about local public buildings in the partner member territories also including a section reserved to the energy efficiency measures adopted by the municipalities within the SEAPs. The ENERJ web platform is an important tool for achieving the objectives of the project. To be operational at its fullest potential it has to be fed with data on local public buildings and SEAPs by the greatest number of municipalities, not only the project partners. A database containing this information can be very useful in planning wider interventions of the single municipalities, creating the conditions to activate collaborations between several local authorities and attract the attention of private operators who will be able to find useful information to evaluate proposals and offers.
Currently, hundreds of buildings have already been included in the platform by the partners. Given that this web tool will remain active for at least five years after the end of the project, the goal is to help municipalities to enter their data on buildings and SEAPs, facilitating the creation of joint actions between municipalities and with private investors, contributing to the financing and the implementation of energy efficiency interventions in the public sector.
The training course organized by the project partners and addressed to energy managers and municipal administrators were one important opportunity to present the web platform and encourage their use by the municipalities.
More info: http://www.enerj-platform.eu/enerj/
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Energy efficiency first: accelerating towards a 2030 objective of 32.5%
On September 25 the European Commission adopted three recommendations to help Member States put the clean energy transition into practice. Putting energy efficiency first is a key objective of the EU, as energy savings are the easiest way of saving money for consumers and to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The EU has set binding targets of reducing our energy consumption through improvements in energy efficiency by 2030 by at least 32.5%, relative to a ‘business as usual’ scenario.
The recommendations contain detailed guidance for Member States on how to enact and best implement various aspects of the amending energy efficiency directive, which has been in place since December 2018. Specifically, the recommendations address:
• the practical implementation of the energy savings obligation for the period 1 January 2021 to 31 December 2030
• the revised metering and billing provisions for thermal energy, and;
• efficiency in heating and cooling
Member States are required to bring into force the laws, regulations and administrative provisions necessary to comply with the amended directive by 25 June 2020, and for the new provisions on individual metering and billing by 25 October 2020. The three recommendations adopted are:
• Commission recommendation on transposing the energy savings obligations under the energy efficiency directive
• Commission recommendation on the implementation of the new metering and billing provisions of the energy efficiency directive
• Commission recommendation on the content of the comprehensive assessment of the potential for efficient heating and cooling under Article 14 of the energy efficiency directive
More info: https://ec.europa.eu/
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News from the related projects
Efficient Buildings Manifesto
The Community of efficient buildings MED, established under the Interreg MED program, has published a Manifesto for energy efficiency in public buildings in the Mediterranean.
Public and private stakeholders from the Efficient Building Community ask EU decision makers, EU program management authorities and national public authorities in Member States to develop policies that take into account the following six recommendations.
• Engrave deep renovation of public buildings in National Energy and Climate Plans (NECPs)
• Make sure that 100% of regional and local authorities have a well-working energy management system embedded in their organisational culture
• Tackle skills gap in public authorities and the construction sector
• Facilitate access to adequate funding and finance sources for local and regional public authorities
• Increase the share of RES production and consumption in public buildings
• Massively replicate know-how generated in EU funded projects
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STEPPING Pilot actions in Greek islands
The Stepping project aims to test a new approach of application of EPC scheme in the design and awarding of energy efficiency intervention for public building stock in order to develop validated guidelines on MED EPC to be transferred and Disseminated to MED Public institutions. In the framework of this project, the Aegean Energy and Environment Agency has been working to mature energy efficiency projects in public buildings in the Greek islands.
AEGEA’s main focus has been on schools, since these were of high priority for financing under the Structural Funds. Schools, were on the top of the evaluation list and gathered the strong interest of municipalities for social policy reasons.
In the last two years, AEGEA collaborated with 13 island municipalities and in total supported the maturation of 26 studies for respective number of buildings.
During the pilot work, AEGEA technical experts conducted energy audits and inspections in selected buildings, decided the appropriate energy efficiency interventions - included in a technical study - and drafted an investment plan for the energy retrofitting of the identified buildings through the use of EPC.
Interventions were carried out in heating and cooling systems, insulation, lighting and the inclusion of RES. The total investment amounts to € 2.395.000.
Out of these municipalities, AEGEA developed investment plans for 4 municipalities and 11 respective buildings.
More about the results on energy savings you can find here.
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Next events
October 22 | 12.00-13.30 | Webinar Using ENERFUND to identify Energy non-Efficient buildings
This webinar, in collaboration with BUILD UP, will focus on how to use ENERFUND to identify Energy non-Efficient buildings.
Please register through this link.
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Partners consortium
ENERJ is supported by European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) under the Interreg MED Programme.
ENERJ (Joint Actions for Energy Efficiency) supports cities and towns in the implementation of energy efficiency actions in their own buildings as part of their local energy and climate policy.
It fosters the collaboration among local governments for Joint Actions. An ENERJ Platform facilitates designing Joint Actions and hosts a database on Local Energy Action Plans and Energy Efficiency measures.
ENERJ project is runnuing from November 2016 until October 2019 with a total budget of Euro 2.26 million. EU Funds Euro 1.92 million.
Lead partner: ANATOLIKI S.A. - Development Agency of Eastern Thessaloniki' Local Authorities
email: reacm@anatoliki.gr / tel. +30 231 0463930
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