Public lighting, beside heating costs, is one of the biggest items within public budgets in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Unfortunately, most street lighting still uses inefficient technologies such as fluorescent lights, incandescent bulbs, and low-pressure mercury vapour lamps.
To modernize municipal public lightning the UNDP, with the support of the Government of Slovak Republic, conducted analysis in order to identify the optimal business model for energy efficient reconstruction of street lighting systems and the process for its practical implementation. The best EU practices and solutions were presented and discussed with municipal officials at the workshop held in UN premises in Sarajevo.
On this occasion the Ambassador of the Slovak Republic in BiH, Martin Kačo underlined:
“I am pleased that financial contribution of Slovak Republic and transfer of knowledge and experience of Slovak experts will leave a long-term solution that will foster private public investments into energy efficient public lighting in Bosnia and Herzegovina”.
Although the LED lighting projects could reduce budget expenses through monthly savings on utility bills of up to 60%, high initial investment, long pay-back period and shrinking municipalities budgets are obstacles for the replacement of systems in the majority of municipalities.
Sukhrob Khoshmukhamedov, UNDP Deputy Resident Representative stated:
“It is critical to ensure that the optimal model is available and operational in municipalities as it will serve as basis for further investments and will widen investment options of municipalities through public private partnership and ESCOs ”.
He also added that BiH municipalities should shift to the usage of efficient solutions for public lighting in order to reduce energy consumption and reduce associated CO2 emissions.
The model that majority of municipalities will opt for, will serve as baseline for further arrangements, partnerships and investments in upgrading and making energy efficient public lighting systems. The Report will be finalized in August 2019.
About the project:
The aim of the UNDP “Development of a private-public investment model for energy efficient street light systems in BiH” project, financed by the Government of Slovak Republic, is to create self-sustainability and ensure that PPP and ESCO modalities will be available and operational for municipalities with an instance of implementing energy efficiency measures, and reinvesting savings into other energy efficiency projects or other infrastructure projects).