The public lighting of the Municipality of Kostrena is under way. The Municipality of Kostrena is the first local self-government unit in the Republic of Croatia that has implemented the procedure for obtaining an energy efficiency implementation in public lighting under the PPP model, thus ensuring the reconstruction without using own resources from the budget, with additional current savings in the budget.
In the restoration of public lighting, the private partner has to implement the energy efficiency measures in the optimum way, to get the most modern, reliable and most efficient LED technology with the automatic control and management system of each individual lamp at the lowest cost, and to renew part of the public lighting columns and billing points.
Such energy efficiency projects are co-financed by different institutions through EU funds.
The Municipality of Kostrena is the first municipality in the Republic of Croatia to succeed in obtaining a public sector grant from WeBSEFF program for the purpose of reducing project costs.
WeBSEFF is a financial program under which the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) provides credit lines through partner banks in the Western Balkans, providing further lending to businesses and local self-government units that want to invest in energy efficiency and renewable energy sources. Local government units, ESCO companies, utility service providers and public property owners through the WeBSEFF program provide funding up to EUR 2.5 million.
Eligible projects receive non-refundable financial incentives that are calculated as a percentage of the loan amount. The incentives are paid after successful completion and verification of the project. Local government units can get incentives between 10% and 15% of the loan amount while the percentage of incentives is based on the impact of the project on the environment that is expressed through the reduction of CO2 emissions. The financial incentives from this program can be combined with incentives from national sources such as the Environmental Protection and Energy Efficiency Fund.
The Republic of Croatia currently participates in the implementation of this program by Zagrebačka banka d.d., Erste banka d.d. and Privredna banka Zagreb d.d.
More information about the WeBSEFF program at http://www.webseff.com