MUNICIPALITY LOVECH SIGNED A CONSTRUCTION CONTRACT FOR THE REPLACEMENT OF STREET LIGHTING IN THE CITY OF LOVECH AND THE VILLAGE OF DOYRENTSI

On 3 February 2022 Lovech Municipality, in its capacity of a Contracting Authority, and after conducting a procedure under the Public Procurement Act, signed a construction contract with the contractor VEMAT EOOD, a company seated in Veliko Tarnovo, for the "Energy Efficient Modernization of the Urban Outdoor Lighting Systems of the City of Lovech and Village of Doyrentsi” project. The contract was signed by the Mayor of Lovech, Cornelia Marinova, and Matyo Matev, Director of VEMAT EOOD.

"At a time when electricity prices are forcing us to seek ultimate and urgent solutions to address the situation, we offer citizens an environmentally friendly and innovative solution by starting construction work for this project," said Cornelia Marinova.

The project was developed under Procedure BGENERGY-2.001 - "Rehabilitation and modernization of municipal infrastructure - systems for outdoor artificial lighting of municipalities" and under the Program "Renewable Energy, Energy Efficiency, Energy Security", funded by the Financial Mechanism of the European Economic Area 2014-2021, and it includes work for replacement of the existing conventional street and park lighting fixtures with a total of 3438 high-efficiency LED luminaires, implementation of an automated system for centralized management and monitoring of street lighting. and measures for the use of energy from renewable sources. The project proposes the use of renewable energy sources to power street lighting using solar modules. A photovoltaic system will be installed on the roof of the building of the former Docho Penkov Secondary Technical School in the Northern Industrial Zone, which will operate with hybrid inverters and storage batteries. The energy generated during the day will be stored in storage batteries and supplied to the street lighting in the evening. It is estimated that the electricity produced from renewable energy sources will be at least 10.7% of the energy required for street lighting.

The project will also contribute to the achievement of the national energy saving indicators related to energy savings in final energy consumption. Reduced annual primary energy consumption by 888,560 kWh / year; reduced greenhouse gas emissions by 1241 tons / year and improved air quality, improved quality of the working environment and life of 43,000 people, increased road safety for pedestrians, etc., are expected.

The total value of the project is BGN 1,172,503.20, representing 100% of the financial assistance grant. The deadline for execution of the construction work is 360 calendar days from the date of signing the construction site opening certificate.

After the project completion, 75% energy savings will be achieved. It is expected that the street lighting electricity costs will fall to approximately BGN 90,000. This estimation was calculated before the increase in electricity prices.

The Mayor of Lovech Municipality Cornelia Marinova also said, “The implementation of this project is a long-term investment and an alternative that will reduce our electricity costs many times over. Expectations after the project implementation are for annual reductions of carbon dioxide emissions by 1240 tons, annual energy savings of over 1050 megawatt hours, and also, as initially planned, annual financial savings for the Lovech Municipality of about BGN 160,000. The electricity price crisis, despite the announced possibility of compensation for municipalities, does not allow to accurately predict the values ​​of annual financial savings for the time being.