ALEA: Energy transition in Romania through technical support given to the COM signatory cities

According to its engagement as an official supporter of the Covenant of Mayors initiative, Alba Local Energy Agency (ALEA) continued its energy-related activities at the county level by offering extended technical support to local authorities in their sustainable energy planning, coordinating the elaboration as well of their Sustainable Energy and Climate Action Plans as COM signatories. In this perspective, in Alba County the first two SECAPs were finalised in 2019, for Alba Iulia and Sebeș Municipalities.

Extending its effort regarding sustainable energy planning over a wider geographical area, ALEA has offered specialised technical support also at the national level. Thus, over the last 2 years (2018, 2019) ALEA offered technical consultancy to 10 Municipalities in Moldova (North-East region of Romania) in the framework of the H2020 EMPOWERING project. It offered professional guidance both for the update of existing SEAPs to SECAPs and for the elaboration of new ones for the new CoM signatory municipalities. The main challenges ALEA faced during this task were the consistent approach regarding the actions of the main municipal domains (buildings, utilities, transportation) to reach the assumed 40% CO2 reduction target and the elaboration of the first adaptation plans to climate change of these cities.

Another direction regarding sustainable energy planning represented the support given by ALEA, as a technical partner, in the elaboration of the Energy Strategy of Alba County 2018-2023, document promoted by Alba County Council. The strategy was finalised in 2018 and it was meant to be a reference document for local sustainable energy planning in Alba County.

The main directions of the strategy are the following: improvement of energy efficiency in every activity sector, extensive use of local RES, performant energy management. For the first time, the strategy set out to assess and mitigate a growing phenomenon in our country, namely the energy poverty of an important number of citizens.