Secretariat launches district heating and cooling network

Today, the Secretariat hosted a workshop dedicated to district heating. The workshop is the first event under the Secretariat’s new initiative to create a network to support efficient heating in the Energy Community. The network will prepare district heating companies for measures stemming from the EU Clean Energy for all European Package. The meeting gathered 50 stakeholders, including representatives of ministries, district heating companies, donors and international financial institutions, to share their knowledge and experience with respect to the different challenges and opportunities linked to district heating system operation.

The workshop was co-organized together with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), which also presented its “Renewable District Energy in the Western Balkans Programme” (ReDEWeB Programme). The programme aims to enable investments in renewable district energy by providing the policy and technical support needed.

Taking place back to back, the Energy Efficiency Coordination Group was dedicated to the role of energy efficiency in National Energy and Climate Plans, energy labelling and ecodesign and energy efficiency in heating and cooling. The Secretariat unveiled the first set of energy efficiency investment programmes in buildings that have been assessed and uploaded to the online Donor Coordination  Platform. The platform now features 70 such projects financed by international and national donors, covering not only national and regional projects, but also municipal ones.