Energy Efficiency and ESCO financing: Niš LE(A)DS the way


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Author

David Donnerer

Publication date

June 15, 2016

The Serbian city of Niš will achieve 23% energy savings on its public lighting using ESCO funding and technical assistance from the European Bank for Research and Development (EBRD).

The city of Niš has been committed to climate change mitigation for a long time. The municipality joined Energy Cities in 2003, signed the Covenant of Mayors in 2011 – committing to decrease its CO2 emissions by 21% by 2020, and adopted a 2050 energy roadmap in 2015.

The municipality is participating in the ERBD program “Legal Support for ESCO – project establishment of a favourable legal framework in the Republic of Serbia”. The first phase is aimed at defining necessary legal reforms for an easier implementation of projects based on energy performance contracting (EPC). The city of Niš is very actively involved in this and subsequent phases. In a second step, appropriate projects in the public sector are identified, focusing on public lightning, and on providing the necessary support for implementation.

Based on outdated light sources with high pressure mercury ( 40% of lamps) as well as lamps of poor quality, Niš’ public lighting is still highly inefficient and energy consuming. Therefore, the city presented a project for the modernisation of its public lighting system, including the replacement of obsolete light sources and luminaries with new generation efficient light sources.

The EBRD has provided technical assistance for the preparation of the tenders for energy performance contracting. The project proposal has been approved, and the public tender will be launched in the next months. Financial and economic analyses have shown that ESCO financing could be the most acceptable solution for the financing of the project.

During the project, 4,628 luminaries (out of the city’s 9,322 lamps) will be replaced with modern technology featuring an efficient optical block, a high degree of mechanical protection and sealing in conjunction with efficient light sources. As a result the city of Niš will reduce its energy consumption by 23%.

Copyright Photos: Srdjan Draskovicwww.shutterstock.com (Title)
Dheera Venkatraman, Shutterstock (Text)