As a part of a framework  'Reenergija - effective energy management in local communities ",  in Kraljevo on Thursday, 21 th of July  was held a consultative meeting on the establishment of energy management.
The meeting was organized with the aim of giving support to the City of Kraljevo in the establishment of energy management and the development of program and designing documents for power management. The meeting was attended by representatives of the City Administration of Kraljevo, Belgrade Open School, RES foundations, public energy companies 'Heating Plant Kraljevo' Directorate for construction, as well as experts in the field of energy. The meeting was attended by the representatives of municipalities Trstenik and Paraćin.

Effective energy management includes:

- The production of energy with low greenhouse gas emissions and a high level of energy efficiency in production, distribution and consumption of energy;

- Energy at an affordable price to the public sector, businesses and citizens;

- Reliable and quality supply of energy that is not a threat to the environment or to human health;

- The use of locally available resources, particularly renewable energy resources, with respect for environmental protection standards;

- Creation of local development policies in line with the specific needs of local communities and strengthening the resilience of local communities to climate change;

- Transparent and accountable energy management with public participation in decision-making and cooperation of the public administration, business and civil society.

Mayor’s deputy Marica Mijailovic said that the progress in the field of energy management has been recognized by the city government as a significant issue and that results should be reached as soon as possible.

Programme Manager of the Belgrade Open School Mirko Popović said that the initiative for the establishment of energy management in the context of the initiative 'Reenergija' arises from the fact that energy efficiency is the first renewable source of energy, as well as the belief that the process of creating energy policy must take into account the needs and possibilities of local communities, that with adequate support can achieve much greater savings than those prescribed by the Regulation on determining the limits of annual consumption of energy. Inter-municipal cooperation, exchange experiences and knowledge, is results that cities and municipalities should certainly take advantage of.

Aleksandar Djelic, a lawyer with over 10 years experience in energy sector, pointed out that the development of energy management and economic development are inextricably linked. Economic activity of Kraljevo, which is grounded on small and medium enterprises and the processing industry, has been recognized as a good ground for the establishment of energy management. Since the countries that have established energy management system uses up to 50% less energy, it is clear that there is a huge space to reduce energy consumption, which will lead to reduced costs and large financial savings.

Aleksandar Macura from RES Foundation has stressed the need to clearly define the objective of establishing a system of energy management to all the benefits that this system brings were used in the best possible way, since the criteria defined by law easily achievable. Establishment of the energy management system has been recognized as important in the context of environmental protection. Protecting the environment has a huge stake in the field of energy efficiency, since the current situation leads to tremendous pressure on natural resources and environmental pollution, particularly air pollution.

As one of the priorities in efforts to establish energy management systems recognized the establishment of Teams for energy management, since the extent of the establishment of the system, the adoption of strategic documents, monitoring of regulations on a daily basis, and many other duties far exceeds the capacity of the energy managers. The establishment of the team has been recognized and the first big hurdle, since it is still a ban on recruitment in the public sector. Due to these difficulties, it is advisable to start smart delegation to take advantage of the existing capacities at the City Administration to the maximum, even run the Energy Manager, which is also the obligation provided by law.

At the end of the meeting conclusions were summarized and defined steps for further strengthening cooperation and achieving the goals of the initiative:

- Signing the agreement on cooperation between the Belgrade Open School, RES Foundation, and representatives of local governments;

-Adoption of a strategic document: Decisions on energy efficiency;- Defining the short and medium term actions to save energy;

- The signing of bilateral agreements on cooperation with the municipality of Vrbas, which represents an example of a good practice, which is through the establishment of the energy management system achieved energy savings by 20% in the public sector

-The final result set is to establish a system of energy management in cities and municipalities of the signatories, until the end of the year.

The initiative 'Reenergija - effective energy management in local communities is realized with the support of Friedrich Ebert Foundation in Belgrade.

Author of the photo: Belgrade Open School