Smart Energiestadt cities and municipalities in Albania

The “Smart Energy Municipalities Project” SEMP, funded by the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO), aims to accompany the four Albanian pilot municipalities Berat, Shkodra, Korça and Permet on their way to structuring, planning and implementing a sustainable energy and climate policy. This project supports the municipalities in setting more ambitious targets for their energy consumption, CO2 emissions and municipal climate protection, and in achieving these targets through targeted measures. In cooperation with the Albanian Agency for Energy Efficiency (AEE), SEMP also supports the municipalities in meeting the national energy and climate targets according to the National Energy and Climate Action Plan (NECAP) by the target year 2040.

Based on a feasibility study from 2019, SEMP now supports the four municipalities in planning, managing and monitoring their energy policy in an integrative and sustainable way by introducing an energy management system based on Energiestadt/European Energy Award (eea). Established tools of the eea, such as the catalogue of measures for the planning of the municipal energy and climate policy, as well as the assessment guidance as a standardized assessment tool, have already been developed and adapted to the context of Albanian cities and municipalities as well as to Albanian legislation. In addition, Albanian experts have been trained as energy management consultants to provide support to municipalities.

In a further step, the municipalities are currently being supported in reducing municipal energy consumption through energy efficiency measures: for example, they spend a high percentage of their annual budget on their street lighting. In order to significantly reduce municipal energy consumption, SEMP, in collaboration with the municipalities and AEE, is implementing energy modernization of street lighting in all four municipalities, which are making a major contribution to achieving municipal and national energy and climate targets. In addition, SEMP supports the municipalities in the design and implementation of further priority energy efficiency projects.

These components are complemented by tailored capacity building of AEE, which is responsible for the qualitative as well as quantitative survey regarding the development of municipal energy policies, but also of local and national authorities, by institutional strengthening and by awareness raising measures.

For the successful implementation of the multifaceted SEMP project, ENCO AG cooperates with experienced national and international partners as well as national and international authorities.