The Government today approved the transformation of the Energy Efficiency Agency into the National Center for Sustainable Energy, NCEED, as of January 1, 2024. The CNED will manage the Residential Energy Efficiency Fund, a financing mechanism for public sector institutions, as well as a number of public registers on energy efficiency and renewable energy statistics and professional entities active in the field.

The Residential Sector Energy Efficiency Fund, RESERM, will provide funding for measures to reduce energy losses in dwellings, with funding mechanisms to be developed in the coming months and launched as early as 2024. To this end, 25 blocks have already been selected where energy audits will be carried out and energy efficiency measures implemented next year. Financing of the Fund will be provided on a permanent basis from the "Energy Efficiency Obligation Scheme", contributions to be paid by energy market operators, while non-reimbursable resources or cheap loans will be attracted from development partners. They will have representatives on the board of the institution, and this structure will ensure transparency and fairness in the management of financial means.

"As long as 50% of the energy is wasted in buildings, it doesn't matter what the price of energy resources is, because the bills will be high anyway. It is important to understand that investments in energy efficiency pay back in resource savings. Through the Fund for energy efficiency in the residential sector we will contribute to the reduction of consumption in households and thus we move from compensations in the bills to reduction of bills," said Energy Minister Victor Parlicov.

The residential sector is responsible for about 48% of gross final energy consumption and the energy performance, i.e. the amount of energy used to maintain one square meter of housing, is more than twice the EU average. Most buildings were built according to Soviet standards, which do not take into account the extent of energy losses, so up to 50% of the energy delivered to households is wasted.

In addition to investing in energy efficiency in residential and public buildings, the CNED will also manage programs to replace old electrical appliances with new energy-efficient ones. The Rabla household appliances program is currently being run on a trial basis with the financial support of the European Union and UNDP, which will be taken over by CNED.

It will also manage an energy efficiency information system, which will include statistics on the energy efficiency of buildings in the country and the impact of the measures implemented. The CNED will also be responsible for the qualification and registration of energy auditors and verification of the quality of their services, the qualification of energy assessors who will issue energy performance certificates for buildings, the management of the electronic register of energy performance certificates for buildings, of inspectors of ventilation and air-conditioning systems, of installers of biomass boilers and stoves, photovoltaic and solar thermal systems, geothermal systems and heat pumps, and other registers.