Minister Pavlova: The National Programme for energy efficiency reaches its goals more rapidly than expected

More than 2000 buildings have been approved under the National Programme for energy efficiency since its launch last year up to date. Their funding has been provided, said the Minister of Regional Development and Public Works, Mrs. Lilyana Pavlova. She pointed out that the Programme has reached its goals faster than expected in terms of approved projects and those that are in progress. This allowed us to take stock of the lessons learned and the challenges during the past year, said she, explaining they are in several directions.

The Regional Minister reminded that due to established considerable differences in the prices in the separate districts, benchmarks for the prices of project implementation activities in the Programme have been led in. In this way we tried to set price caps, said she. These accounts are based on the average prices for the construction industry, which are also published by the Bulgarian Construction Chamber, explained the Minister. 2015 was a peak year for the industry, there were many projects, which reduced the competition, even there were not enough building companies, workers and scaffolding for all buildings, said Pavlova. Currently there is a lull in the market before the active summer construction season. We expect that there would be most work exactly in relation to renovation and construction of residential buildings, as well as implementation of major infrastructure projects which would start in the summer, emphasized Pavlova.

The conducted price analysis showed that we are able to decrease the price caps, explained the Regional Minister. The Programme has to be brought back to its main focus – energy efficiency, stressed she. Lilyana Pavlova noted that though the extended scope of the Progrmme concerning the eligibility of buildings, a priority would be given to the implementation of largest buildings under the National Programme for energy efficiency.