Tolna County Development Agency is partner of the SET-UP PGI01484 INTERREG EUROPE project. The second Hungarian LETS stakeholder meeting took place at the Budapest premises of the Managing Authority of the Environment and Energy Efficiency Operational Programme (EEEOP, being a section of the Ministry of National Development). On the occasion of the interregional experience exchange process of SET-UP project, Hungarian electricity and municipality professional got together to exchange their experiences gathered in different domestic and transnational projects at Budapest, on 22 September 2017.
The Central Smart Metering Ltd. is a state owned subsidiary of the Hungarian Electricity Works and conducts a nation-wide pilot of rolling out 120.000, smart meters at municipalities and household at 20.000, endpoints of electricity use in strategic cooperation with municipalities, energy traders and technology providers, among others. The pilot project includes smart metering of electricity, gas, domestic cold-hotwater and district heating ends at September 2018. As a result of the three years long project a closing study will be elaborated to derive proposals for the wider spread of smart metering in Hungary.
During the meeting three smart metering related transnational projects were introduced and showcased to the Hungarian professional audience.
The BOOSTEE-CE project (Boosting energy fficiency in Central European cities through smart energy management) with the participation of the Tolna County Development Agency as partner intends to strengthen the capacities of the public sphere by technology support, GIS-based data and intelligent energy management solutions. As a pilot action within BOOSTEE-CE, in Tolna County the town called Tolna will roll out electricity and gas smart meters at its town hall, cultural centre and training pool to visualise the benefits of that, and based on the above technologies to support the more energy conscious behaviour of the municipality staff and of the local inhabitants.
The TOGETHER Central Europe project – which was introduced at the Paks interregional SET-UP meeting at Paks on 5 July 2017 for the project partners –, as its title (TOwards a Goal of Efficiency THrough Energy Reduction) suggests, lays emphasis on smart metering and demand side management. Its complex approach (with curricula development, trainings, awareness raising actions beside the actual smart meter roll out at town of Paks public buildings for electricity [18 meters] and district heating [five-six meters]) has an objective of setting up a transnational strategy for the viable energy efficiency interventions at public real estates. In the TOGETHER project the Hungarian partner is the Town of Paks, being the direct and longer term beneficiary of the smart meters rolled out within the project.
Last, but not least the FIRECE Central Europe project (Innovative Financial Instruments for industry low carbon energy transition in Central Europe) with the participation of the South Transdanubian Regional Innovation Agency as a Hungarian partner has a firm objective to elaborate innovative public finance instruments for the benefit of small and medium size enterprises. By doing so, the project encourages these business units to roll out energy efficiency solutions (smart meters, changing of doors and windows, retrofitting of buildings, etc.) to increase their competitiveness and contribution to low carbon regional/national strategies.
On the second Hungarian LETS meeting 20 people participated. The persons being present represented the quoted projects’ beneficiaries/external experts, the Central Smart Metering Ltd., the Miskolc Holding Ltd. (a county seat asset management public company), the EEEOP Managing Authority and the Hungarian Alliance of Energy Consumers.
