This session is focused on the issues that municipal experts face in collecting and analysing data for energy consumption, discussing possible solutions, good practises, and tools, all for the purpose of utilizing the financial resources foreseen in the future financial mechanisms.

The first part of the session will discuss the benefits of municipal energy management, the available municipal energy information system, as well as a vision for the development of sustainable financing schemes and tools.

The presentations will be followed by a discussion about barriers and challenges faced by the local authorities during the energy management process. The discussion will be based on the following questions:

• Does local energy management help you to attract funding for energy efficiency projects and if so, how does it help?
• Do the financial institutions recognise energy management as a risk mitigation activity for energy efficiency projects?
• Is there an energy efficiency measures implementation protocol that ensures the validation of the savings obtained by new energy efficiency measures?
• How can energy management support sustainable investments in energy efficiency?
• Can you make a comparison between the costs of energy management and its benefits?

Bulgarian municipalities have a long track record of supporting citizen-led initiatives, partnerships, and their own investments in this area, and are increasingly aware of the benefits of stimulating additional private investment, for which increased state support is also expected.

However, the implementation of citizen-led sustainable energy projects is still underdeveloped in Bulgaria, with outstanding administrative, legal, technical, and financial obstacles. Despite these barriers, municipalities have the potential to manage such RES projects – a notion growing in its salience given the skyrocketing energy expenses, making the investments ever so attractive.

Following the presentations on the opportunities and challenges that local governments face, as well as on the broader regulatory framework, there will be a discussion, based on the following questions:

• What are the successful business models to accelerate the introduction of public-private energy cooperatives?
• Will the energy crisis and the rise in energy prices stimulate you to look for new financing opportunities for renewable energy projects?
• What is needed in terms of capacity building and technical assistance to facilitate energy cooperatives?
• How best to support the collaboration between public and private organizations?
• What legislative changes are needed to support energy cooperatives?

In light of the expected uptake of self-financing instruments for the renovation of multi-family residential buildings, one of the barriers to the full implementation can stem from the inability of energy poor households to afford it. The NRRP has a provision for the development of a definition for energy poverty, but there is still no official position from the responsible institutions. Thus, the first part of the session will focus on a few topical studies on energy poverty in Bulgaria, aiming to facilitate the creation of a national definition to help the development of sustainable financial instruments. The following questions will set the scene for the planned discussion:

• What do you think should be the key components of the future renovation programs to facilitate the involvement of energy poor households?
• How do you assess citizens’ awareness of building renovation programmes and the existing financing instruments?
• How can a definition of energy poverty enable the functioning of innovative financing instruments?
• Have the presented surveys changed your understanding of whether households are willing to co-finance renovation projects?
• What do you think are the most appropriate communication channels to influence attitudes and stimulate citizens to participate in the building renovation process with a view to participation in the programme by energy poor households?

Based on outcomes from the previous roundtables, the question of quality assurance, namely, the importance of ensuring the quality and enabling a reliable monitoring of EE projects’ results for the attraction of additional private investment, remains of high priority for all stakeholders. This supplementary session has been planned as a capacity building opportunity, with a demonstration of best practice examples from the municipal energy management information system, and a presentation on the role of energy performance certificates for attracting investments.