Deep dive in Belgrade reaches tipping point
On 3-4 July, 2019, the District Energy in Cities team organized a technical meeting in Belgrade to present the results of assessments for district energy implementation locally, hold trainings, and hear from stakeholders on some potential barriers and concerns for the project. Events like this help to prepare stakeholders, municipalities, and most importantly, users, for district energy connection. Sharing lessons learned helps cities to overcome market barriers and reduce risk.
The Initiative presented optimization modeling for the interconnection of the DH system and other developments from the interconnection study at the meeting on 3 July, focusing on the three major sub-grids, and the analysis of 40-50 potential scenarios to determine the ones with the best trade-off between investment costs and technical benefits. Building upon these results, the pre-feasibility study will provide technical and economical insights in future infrastructure investments and their impact on operations.
Representatives of local authorities and key beneficiaries on the integration of District Energy in Cities took part in a set of workshops and trainings in local policies and energy mapping. The training program focused on the role and potential of city authorities to enable the mainstreaming of energy, specifically district energy, into local policy planning, to support the development of short and medium-term projects and thereby ensure long-term benefits from district energy at the local level. The training was an opportunity to present the methodology for data collection, coordination between stakeholders and setting of qualitative and quantitative goals at the city level in the area of district energy. Attended by representatives of DH utilities of several cities in Serbia, primarily technical and professional staff, as well as representatives of local self-governments the training was aimed at discussing the multiple uses of energy mapping, such as project identification and planning, consumer awareness, and stakeholder coordination.
During the meeting and trainings, participants initiated a lively discussion on the advantages and challenges in introducing consumption-based billing (CBB). One such challenge is the need to improve the energy efficiency of buildings in Belgrade in parallel with installing district energy and integrating renewables. Solutions like thermal insulation and windows replacement can help upgrade the old building stock in Belgrade to achieve greater energy efficiency and cost savings. Participants also highlighted an opportunity to incentivize or subsidize connection to DH since the economic aspect is important to the average Serbian consumer.
District Energy in Cities team is planning to finalize the pre-feasibility study on interconnections by September 2019, while the study on solar thermal, conducted by the Korean District Heating Corporation, will be undertaken jointly with support from EBRD in the following months.
District Energy in Cities activities in Belgrade have been initiated in early 2016, while the deep dive phase has been implemented since mid 2018 bringing about new developments for Serbia’s capital.
