Forum / Round table on the topic: Trends in energy efficiency

MUNICIPALITY OF BITOLA

Day I of the Energy Efficiency Week

The week of energy efficiency in the Municipality of Bitola, started with a round table – forum on the topic: Trends in energy efficiency in the Republic of Northern Macedonia.

The forum was held in the Cultural Information Center – Kino Manaki, Shirok Sokak, Bitola on Monday 30.08.2021 from 10:30 to 14:30, according to the planned agenda in the invitation for the event, without changes. The number of registered participants was 29.

The introductory session of the forum referred to Current Trends in Energy Efficiency. Moderator was Dr. Suzana Trajkovska-Kochankovska from the GAUS Institute – Bitola. It started with the announcement of the event by the moderator, who gave a brief overview of the significance of the BENEFIT project.

Afterwards, the Mayor of the Municipality of Bitola Natasha Petrovska, M.Sc. addressed the participants, welcoming the participants and emphasizing the importance that the Municipality of Bitola gives to energy efficiency and emphasized the efforts made by the municipality to improve the energy efficiency of its facilities. The statements of the mayor and the president of the Management Board of the GAUS Institute, prof. Dr. Igor Nedelkovski for the media.

After the introductory speech of the mayor, a presentation was made by prof. Igor Andreevski, PhD, B.Sc. in Engineering, from the Technical Faculty – Bitola, on the topic Current trends in the implementation of energy efficiency measures. Prof. Andreevski gave an expert review of what are the current measures for energy efficiency in our country, by comparing with the measures that are current in the European Union. He explained the implementation of all current measures and gave an analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of each of the current measures. It also presents several good practices from Europe and in our country, on the successful implementation of energy efficiency measures.

After the presentation of prof. Andreevski An inspiring presentation on the implementation of energy efficiency measures in terms of financing was given by two representatives of Sparkasse Bank – Skopje, Goran Petrovski and Vladimir Kechovski, who presented the possibilities for financing energy efficiency projects. The presenters gave an overview of the credit lines offered by Sperkase Bank – Skopje and a detailed description of the financing conditions. They also presented some good practices of energy efficiency projects financed by Sparkasse Bank.

After these two presentations, a round table discussion was developed in which several discussants took part. In addition to the speakers and the moderator, several participants joined the discussion (for example, Prof. Dr. Metodija Atanasovski from the Technical Faculty in Bitola, Risto Ristevski, MA, energy expert from the Technical Faculty in Bitola, retired, Ljubo Atanasovski, director of the Public enterprise for urbanism, design and engineering – Bitola and others). Particularly interesting questions were asked by the speakers from Sparkasse Bank about the credit conditions for the implementation of energy efficiency measures.

This session ended around 12:30 and was followed by a break.

The second session was on Activities in terms of energy efficiency in Bitola. This session was started and led by the moderator Dr. Suzana Trajkovska-Kochankovska, from GAUS Institute – Bitola.

The keynote speakers were Vesna Nedelkovska, M.Sc., B.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering, from GAUS Institute – Bitola, who referred to the situation with the plans and measures for energy efficiency in Bitola and the Pelagonija region. This analysis is the result of a study conducted by the GAUS Institute on this topic. Vesna Nedelkovska gave a critical review of the plans and measures for energy efficiency in all nine municipalities in the Pelagonija region, with special emphasis on the Municipality of Bitola.

After the presentation of Vesna Nedelkovski, Goran Nedelkov, B.Sc. from the Municipality of Bitola explained the activities of the Municipality of Bitola in terms of energy efficiency in public buildings owned by the Municipality of Bitola.

After these two introductory presentations, roundtable discussions by the forum participants re-emerged.

The forum ended around 14:30. Then all participants continued with a working lunch in Restaurant Korzo, Bitola where in an informal atmosphere continued discussions on energy efficiency.

The event is organized in accordance with the KOVID-19 protocol for organization of working meetings, trainings, courses and seminars. Vaccination or KOVID-19 certification was required to participate, as well as wearing a protective mask during the sessions.