Tools to Help Municipalities to Promote Energy Efficiency

Federazione Italiana per l’uso Razionale dell’Energia

Diffusion campaign and energy manager

Dario Di Santo

Diffusion campaign

The diffusion campaign can be a powerful tool to improve the energy efficiency market in Bulgaria and to help the country to walk towards a sustainable development model. Municipalities should have a central role in its implementation, both because they could utilize the campaign to stimulate the implementation of their energy policy and the local energy market, and because they are near and know the needs of their citizenship.

To be successful the campaign should address all the issues and it should be directed towards all the actors that are involved in the energy sector. This can be obtained through a series of actions to be realized in a certain period of time. It is also important to mix together the information and the suggestions given through the campaign with practical examples, in order to show the concreteness of the whole initiative.

The outcomes that it is possible to try to obtain from the campaign are:

-to be updated with the development of the European Legislation about energy;

-to inform the citizenship of the possibility to save money through the adoption of energy efficiency projects;

-to start educational programs towards the primary schools students to let them know energy and environmental issues;

-to stimulate the market operators dealing with energy to support a shift towards the energy efficiency and the sustainable development;

-to help the local operators to find financing and foreign investors to implement energy efficiency actions or to enlarge their business;

-to help the foreign companies, especially ESCOs, to enter the market, e.g. through joint ventures with Bulgarian companies, and to implement energy efficiency projects even where there are no funds available by end-users;

-to understand the issues that the Government has to address to allow the municipalities and the market operators to develop a strong and efficient market;

-to promote the interchange of best practices among municipalities;

-to stimulate the opportunities of cooperation between the local authorities, the universities, the local energy agencies and the market operators.

In Italy there are many examples of campaign realized by municipalities or stimulated by them that were successful. Some of them can be viewed and discussed during the seminar.

-Provincia di Milano: the subregional government implemented an innovative approach for the implementation of the European directive on energy certification of buildings, putting together 14 municipalities, the Regional Agency for the Protection of the Environment and the technical university Politecnico di Milano.

-Lombardia Regional Government started a policy for stimulating biomass powered district heating networks. Many of them were created and, because of the diffusion campaign they launched with the help of Regione Lombardia, are a well known example and are imitated not only in Italy.

-Many local authorities and regional government are working together with their Save or Phare Energy Agency and with ENEA (the Italian Agency for new technologies, energy and environment) to realize diffusion campaign related to energy audits and energy efficiency projects or vademecums, strengthening the cooperation with the agencies and enhancing the effectiveness of local and central policies in the energy field.

-the white certificate mechanism is improving the relations and the cooperation between some municipalities and their electricity and/or gas distribution companies, through the realization of energy efficiency projects and of diffusion campaigns aimed at the citizenship.

Energy managers

The changes in the energy markets, due to the liberalization and to the oil price and the supply security issues, created the conditions for a strong growth of the energy efficiency market, asking for new companies and new expert to join it for implementing the energy policies issued by the EC and by each Country. At the same time, the need for a new type of expert has emerged in the EU. An expert that adds to the technical skills also the knowledge of financial and risk analysis, environmental issues and policies, and strong communicating capabilities. A need that was recognized also by the CEN-CENELEC and some national technical regulations institutions.

In Italy a network of energy manager is operating since 1991. It is managed and technically supported by FIRE, the Italian Federation for the Rational use of Energy, under an implementing agreement with the Ministry of Economic Development.

Under the requirements of law 10/1991, energy managers are issued by large consumers in the private and in the public sector. In year 2005 there were 222 energy managers operating in local and regional authorities. FIRE has collected many success studies and best practices implemented in the public sector through the appointed energy managers. Some municipalities, like Comune di Modena, are well known at a European level thanks to the programs and projects managed by their energy managers.

During the seminar the personal experience of Mr. Picchiolutto, former energy manager of Comune di Modena, together with information about FIRE activities can be discussed.

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