Establish a sustainable mechanism for dialogue and consultations

–           Conduct a Needs Assessment (NA) of the national policies and institutional framework in place and identify energy consumption profiles of the local authorities in order to assess the potential for improvement at all levels – from policies to actions at local level.

–           Conduct a data sourcing exercise and identify current methodology of collection of energy data in the local authorities.

–           Carry out surveys to measure the awareness of the population of the targeted areas, businesses and employees of the local authorities on Energy Efficiency and Climate issues.

–           Prepare the Communication and Visibility plan of the project.

–           Kick-off event on EE, present NA results and input from the local level – to be held in Kurbin, AL with both AL and KS stakeholders

2. Development of two comprehensive and implementable Action Plan on Energy Efficiency, including monitoring and reporting for both municipalities while transferring know-how and increase capacities of the municipal staff

–           Assess the implementation level of the Action Plan of Energy Efficiency of Suhareka municipality in order to identify challenges and good practices, draw recommendations and lessons learnt.

–           Preparation the Action Plans for energy efficiency at local level AL-KS for both Kurbin and Suhareka Municipality. Build upon the existing plan of Suhareka and the recommendations of the assessment of the existing plan, in order to have two new plans in place for the years 2022-2026. Action plans shall be built on the criteria of quantification of costs, emissions saved and identification of co-benefits.

–           Organisation of trainings with relevant stakeholders to increase their capacities and raise awareness on the necessity to develop energy strategies at local and regional level:

(i)        1 training with local government representatives, relevant regional directorates, schools and 1 training with CSOs, media, businesses in AL

(ii)       1 training with local government representatives, relevant regional directorates, schools and 1 training with CSOs, media, businesses in KS

–           Exchange days (2 days, 1 in AL and 1 in KS) of the staff of both municipalities working on the local action plan , in order to

exchange experiences and learn from respective best practices and lessons learnt.

3. Build a local internal strategic framework complying with national requirements and EU standards

–           Prepare a Methodology for fulfilling the duties of reporting energy data to national authorities – Energy Efficiency Agency (EEA), INSTAT etc.  Includes training of responsible staff on central local and individual consumer points (administrators of public buildings) on how to report in the system of Monitoring and Verification Platform of EEA.

–           Create a strategy of energy efficiency auditing in the public buildings under administration from the local authorities.

–           Prepare 1 Manual on Procuring Energy Efficiently at local level – step by step guide to serve as an example for other regions. The manual will introduce assessment criteria for all main energy and resource intensive activities that are procured by the local authority.

4. Building and promoting green investments and raise awareness on Energy Efficiency

–           2 Pilot investments in targeted regions – one kindergarten/school in Kurbin (1 heating pump system and 1 green rooftop created) and one pilot investment of LED lighting and solar panels in public spaces on Suhareka. (including exchange of know-how between the 2 municipalities)

–           Open days on energy efficiency Awareness raising Campaign: Development of website, information materials (leaflets, posters, guides, videos, jingles).

–           Air quality monitoring in the renovated buildings to establish the before and after effect of the efficiency measures.

–           Meetings in the municipalities with companies that implement measures of EE and Renewable Energy to discuss and identify the potentials of these measures on local employment and skill development locally.

–           A video and radio news will be prepared to promote the two pilot investments in Kurbin and Suhareka and raise awareness on their benefits.

–           Build a website and social media dedicated accounts for the project directly linked to the websites of the municipalities.

–              Preparing a Regional Fair to exhibit products and best practices of EE utilization and its benefits across borders.

–              Organising a Closing Conference on Best Practices Exchange, Suhareka will share the experience on development and implementation of its Action Plan and pilot investment in public lighting when Kurbin will share the experience on pilot investment and state of play of the new local actions plans in place.