Veliko Gradište in northeast Serbia is home to around 17,000 people. An almost equal number of people from this small municipality live abroad, mainly in Austria and Italy, where they have moved in search of better jobs.
The key business sectors in Veliko Gradište are tourism and fishery. The place is lively during the summer season when many tourists and emigrants visit nearby Silver Lake. In winter it is rather quiet.
But Veliko Gradište has recently pushed through one notable change. By refurbishing its street lighting system, it has achieved greater energy efficiency and major cost savings.
An application to the EBRD’s Regional Energy Efficiency Programme was successful and the municipality installed new street lights last summer with support from a contractor selected through a public tender.
The municipality’s expenditure on electricity has now gone down from €6,400 per month to €1,800. Before the system’s installation, it used around 950,000 kWh per year, compared to only 260,000 kWh now.
EU energy standards in the Western Balkans
The Regional Energy Efficiency Programme supports Western Balkan countries to improve their energy efficiency and move closer to EU standards. The EBRD programme, funded by the European Union and implemented in cooperation with the Energy Community Secretariat, provides policy dialogue and financing through either credit lines or the direct financing of municipalities.
Street lighting projects in Serbia will be rolled out in over 30 municipalities, mainly through PPP models, a new experience for most of them.
The EU is one of the biggest supporters of improving energy efficiency in the Balkans.
“Through its membership of the Energy Community, Serbia has already committed to adopting EU Energy Efficiency rules and standards. The EU, international financial institutions, and other donors have all made substantial contributions to making dedicated energy efficiency finance available and affordable to people in Serbia,” states Sem Fabrizi, Ambassador of the European Union to Serbia.
From 2007 to 2016 the EU pledged more than €152 million of grant funding to support energy efficiency investment worth more than €760 million in accession countries.
These investments will help achieve emission savings of 1 million tonnes CO2 per year in the region. This is the equivalent of more than a year’s worth of car fleet emissions in Montenegro.
Original source: EBRD
Published on 31 January 2019
