Energy efficiency challenges for Naryan-Mar

The Norwegian-Russian energy efficiency seminar that took place in Naryan-Mar on September 14 was organized as part of a larger Energy Efficiency Project in the Barents Region by the Norwegian-Russian Chamber of Commerce and the Norwegian Barents Secretariat.

62 specialists participated in the seminar in Naryan-Mar, including were representatives of regional and municipal authorities, homeowners associations, management companies, budgetary organizations and institutions.

The Administration of the Nenets Autonomous okrug (NAO) has passed a long term program on development of the region’s energy complex, energy saving support and increased energy efficiency, said Andrey Semyonov, Head of the Energy and Municipal service Department of the NAO Administration. This program includes energy audit of buildings, installation of hot water and electricity meters in houses, increasing of the thermal protection quality for buildings, energy saving.

However, there are number of challenges on the way to energy efficiency in the region. Too few houses are equipped with meters; organizations – and, to a lesser degree, the population – lack motivation to save energy; there are too few qualified specialists on energy efficiency, noticed Pavel Masyukov, Deputy Head of the Department for construction, housing and communal services.

Thereupon, the report made by Knut Nilsen, Project Maneger of the Troms Kraft Energiservice was very useful. He informed about experience of energy inspection tools and meters installation, Norwegian energy efficiency technology and solutions, training of specialists. Also the presentation about energy saving technologies in buildings made by the Arkhangelsk specialists from the “Automatica-Sever” was very interesting for the auditory.

The seminar in Naryan-Mar is part of a larger Energy Efficiency Project in the Barents Region. The project has three main phases. The first one is to implement two test cases – one in Arkhangelsk and one in Murmansk – for testing Norwegian equipment for monitoring the use of energy in buildings, and in addition to use energy advisors to reduce the energy consumption. The Second phase is to implement energy efficiency seminars in the cities of Arkhangelsk, Murmansk, Naryan-Mar and Syktyvkar. The third project activity is to get an overview of the Market potential for energy efficiency in two of the Russian regions in the target group.

Financial support to the project was provided by the Norwegian Barents Secretariat, Troms County Council and Nordland County Council.

By Andrey Vokuev, The Norwegian Barents Secretariat’s Information Office in Naryan-Mar