From 10th to 13th of August 2020 Regional Energy management training has been organized within the EU funded EU4Environment Resource efficiency and cleaner production project by UNIDO and National Implementing Partner REC Caucasus Armenia as part of the specialized RECP pieces of training for RECP specialists from Armenia, Georgia and Belarus. The aim of the energy management training was to prepare internal energy auditors, RECP experts and internal energy managers ensuring practical approach to an energy audits, enriching them with knowledge on typical hot spots for energy efficiency in SMEs, and an approach how to (quickly) identify cost/benefit for energy efficient solutions. The training was conducted through Zoom platform in English. Working groups were facilitated in national languages.
The Regional Energy Management Training is aimed to support RECP experts from Armenia, Georgia and Belarus in the process of RECP assessments and identification of suitable/valid options for energy efficiency and management within SMEs. Training was focused on the following topics:
- Basics of energy management and auditing: planning of an energy audit, elements for an energy management system for SMEs, rules of the thumb, economic calculations, energy purchasing
- Engineering aspects: Energy-conscious building and renovation, heating and distribution of heat, process heat, compressed air, lighting, refrigeration, ventilation, air conditioning, electric drives, green-IT.
Training was led by Mr. Johannes Fresner, International Expert, working for EU4Environment EU funded project.
The training was attended by Mr.Andrea Baggioli, International Aid and Cooperation Officer, Delegation of the European Union to Armenia, Mr. Andrej Bartosiewicz, EU Deligation Georgia, Mr. Avetis Hovhannisyan, advisor of the Minister of Economy, EU4Environment National Focal Point, Mr. David Advadze, Technical focal point, The Ministry of Economy and Sustainable development of Georgia, Mrs. Tatiana Chernyavskaya, International Project Coordinator of EU4Environment Programme, UNIDO HQ, Mrs. Anahit Simonyan, Head of UNIDO Operations in Armenia, Mrs. Nune Harutyunyan RECP National coordinator (Armenia), Mr. Georgi Abulashvili RECP National Coordinator (Georgia), RECP National experts, academia representatives.
Mr.Baggioli has welcomed participants and mentioned EU’s support to EU4Environment RECP project, as well as welcomed the efforts within the project. He has mentioned that EU is satisfied by the results of the project, and will further support this effort with new initiatives supporting Circular economy and RECP promotion in the country.
Mrs. Tatiana Chernyavskaya expressed her gratitude to EU for support, welcomed the participants and presented the main goals of training. She expressed hope for the productive works during this specialized trading session.
National Focal Point from the Ministry of Economy of Armenia Mr. Avetis Hovhannisyan has welcomed participants underscoring importance of support of EU and UNIDO within the context of Circular economy promotion in Armenia, and concrete positive results implemented within the project. He has mentioned that Ministry is welcoming such initiatives, and will continue to support activities of EU4Environemnt programme, all the implementers, such as UNIDO, REC Caucasus Armenia Office, and the pool of national experts, which are an undeniable asset for further implementation of Green economy in the business sector.
Mrs. Anahit Simonyan has warmly greeted all participants and mentioned that this online format training gave one good opportunity to organize regional events and see each other face by face. She mentioned that Energy management regional training was made possible thanks to the concrete tangible results of previous RECP project within the framework of EaP Green. EU4Environment RECP project and previous EaP Green projects aimed to show to SMEs that EU, implementing partners and government were happy to introduce of new culture, new way of the business, which is Green and Resource efficient. Within this content she has emphasized importance nexus between the Ministries of Environment and Economy. Armenia is now in the process of developing of the Country Programme and Circular Economy, Green Economy, RECP are one of main components of Armenian CP. She wished to participants’ good and productive training.
Ms. Nune Harutyunyan, National coordinator of the project, has welcomed all participants and announced the opening of the training, briefly describing the aim of the training and schedule. The training was carried out by the international expert Mr. Johannes Fresner.
The programme of this training was condensed from the content of the training program EUREM (European energy manager), a qualification for energy auditors in several European countries. This training was an introduction to the different aspects of project identification and planning for energy efficiency, especially for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). It includes an overview of what to look at, typical hotspots, benchmarks, rules of the thumb, and economic aspects. For each element, a brief checklist was presented for direct application.
The training has gathered experienced experts from Armenia, Georgia and Belarus with a solid background in resource efficient and cleaner production and implementation of audits for SMEs from EaP countries. The experts contributed actively to practical case analysis building on their knowledge of analysing energy balances using data of mixed quality and their previous involvement with SME.
International expert Mr. Johannes Fresner started the theoretical and practical part of the training by providing a coherence understanding of the Energy Management System. The whole presentations were accompanied with case studies, success stories and various examples which were outlining the identification of challenges, losses of resources within the production cycle, possible options for reducing energy bills and costs using RECP approaches, good housekeeping, energy efficiency solutions allowing SMEs to optimize the working process and with the help of experts identify technology changes bringing long-term impact.
During training the following topics were presented to the Experts by International RECP trainer Mr.Johannes Fresner:
- Effective energy auditing for SMEs: Relevance for climate protection, characteristics of SME, appropriate audit methodology
- Heating: Heating technology, combined heat and power, distribution of heat, biomass, solar thermal, biogas, buildings, process heat and heat recovery, rules of the thumb
- Electricity consumers: Refrigeration, air conditioning and ventilation technology, compressed air, motors, pumps, fans, lighting, control strategies, rules of the thumb
- Advanced technologies and methodologies including case studies: Photovoltaics, absorption cooling, organic Rankine cycle, Pinch analysis
After each of the topics participants did and discussed the following exercises:
- Exercise 1: From the overall picture to details, priorities, benchmarking.
- Exercise 2: Analysis of boilers, heat exchangers, and heat distribution systems
- Exercise 3: Identification and rough evaluation of energy saving options for electric energy
- Exercise 4: Identification and evaluation of energy saving options applying advanced technologies and methods
For evaluation of the results of the training, the project has devised an online evaluation questionnaire.
Post evaluation questionnaires were completed by the 22 training participants after the training, via the online evaluation platform. As a result of evaluating the following analysis of data obtained from participants of the training is presented. Answers to the standard questionnaire are considered of the 5-gradation scoring system. Charts and tables presented below solely reflect participants’ perceptions and opinions on training relevance, quality and betterment options. These tables were elaborated on the basis of responses to the Energy management Training Evaluation Form created by Google Docs platform (Evaluation Form, Regional Energy Management)
