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Eordea (Ex Ptolemaida)

  Ptolemaida is known as the 'Energy Valley' of Greece with 5 power plants (steam-electric plants of the Public Power Cie. using lignite from mines of the area), but recognized for its air pollution. In 1990's it was 1stGreek city that installed & operated a district heating network.District heating uses thermal energy of the co-generated thermal & electrical power from 2 power plants (total thermal power: 75MW).On-going local authority reformation with merging of 3 municipalities with Ptolemaida which will evolve, in the next years, into Municipality of Eordea.NO concept of 'social housing' in Greece. Most dwellings are owned by their owners. Owners of land build their own houses, or provide their land to constructors covering the cost of construction and getting back 35-50% of the constructed area. This 'tool' led to a strong development of construction sector & unbalanced urban development. There are no big house owners.Labour housing (2-3 floors) with low rents built by State or big Cies (like power plant Cie) donated these last years to households, are closer to the concept of 'social housing', but are not widespread.

District heating Cie sees its task as energy provider & not in helping reduce the demand.
Energy is delivered as cheap as possible and this is conflicting with the message that saving energy would be good for financial reasons. Available  individual metering is not used to steer individual energy use.
Many energy projects are pilot projects based on external financing (subsidies). No internal financial tools (revolving funds, energy contracting, CO2 certificates) have been developed.
No indicators about housing energy aspects.
Only monitoring instrument is the household bills for thermal energy by Municipal District Heating Cie.

Energy policy and legislation

1st Greek city to sign Covenant of Mayors and to set itself high goal for energy-saving & energy efficiency 20-20-20 and realize a Local Action Plan which contains (small scale) restorations of municipal buildings & public lighting, to achieve energy efficiency & decrease of CO2 emissions (~ by 260 000 tons).
City became member of Energie Cités network.
Legislative framework regarding Energy efficiency is only valid on new buildings or existing buildings that have to be renovated & are > 1000 m2.
Since 6 months, a new law for feed-in tariffs has taken effect in Greece, allowing individuals to install photovoltaic panels onto their roofs of up to 10 Kwp and sell generated power for 0,55 Euros/KWh.

Actions on energy matters

Existing actions

City Energy Efficiency Plan with specific actions for public buildings & lighting, but no links made between agreed 20-20-20 goals & actions. Construction of energy-bioclimatic Town Hall and bioclimatic renovation of AEVAL's building. 'Smart Lamp' project leading to optimum use of public lighting, should save >35% energy.
Since last year: ongoing process to raise public awareness through mass media publications (newspapers, press releases, TV shows,...), congresses & participation to external events (e.g.: Ecology-innovation-Energy days during European Sustainable Energy week).
City is keeping price of district heating deliberately low to raise attractiveness of net connection (done on a voluntary basis)., but no guarantee that this could continue since city is dependent on PPC & global energy pricing.
New subsidy of 40% for energy efficiency by Ministry of Environment, Energy & Climate Change (outer cel insulation, windows replacement...).
Some banks have launched long term loans for financing of energy efficient improvements + installation of solar panels at low interest rate (still high)

Planned actions

A 2nd. phase of Energy Efficiency Plan should include houses & industry target groups.
2010 Operational Master Plan foresees actions for sustainable energy development & energy efficiency to be realized between 2011-2014.
City has secured to finance by State funds a new pipeline with the Kardia's power plant of total thermal power of 100 KW. It will allow all city's households & nearby villages be connected to district heating network, as well as, non-urban use of district heating (greenhouses, SPA...), seen as CO2 free energy being a side product of power plants.
In long term a new energy source has to be found to replace lignite power plants because of the exhaustion of the lignite.
Only instrument to develop energy efficiency in housing sector is the installation of roof photovoltaic panels of up to 10 Kwp. No subsidy for cost of installation but payment of 0,55 Euros/KWh to individual providers by power system (fixed 20 years contract & payback period estimated to 4-5 yr).
Related Good Practices
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