Armenia: Closing ceremony of the project “Access to Renewable and Efficient Energy in Vayk and Spitak Municipalities”

On November 30, 2019, the closing ceremony of the “Access to Renewable and Efficient Energy in Vayk and Spitak Municipalities” (AREEM) project, implemented by the Habitat for Humanity Armenia Fund within the framework of the program “Covenant of Mayors - Demonstration Projects” was held in Yerevan with financial support from European Union and with co-financing of local city administrations.

The event was attended by Ms. Andrea Wiktorin, the Head of the EU Delegation to Armenia, Mr. Michal Kruzliak, the Executive Director of the Habitat Armenia Regional Office, Mr. Andrea Baggioli, the Project Coordinator in the EU Delegation, Mr. Gagik Sahakyan, the Mayor of Spitak City, Mr. Gagik Mushkambaryan, the Energy manager of Vayk Municipality, Mr. Artem Kharazyan, the National expert of the EC project “Covenant of Mayors - East” and Mr. Sergey Arzumanyan, the Project manager of AREEM, as well as representatives of various ministries and and agencies, international projects, NGOs and media.

In her welcome remark the EU Ambassador to Armenia, Andrea Wiktorin, noted that energy efficiency and combating climate change are among the priority areas of the EU programs in Armenia.

“The EU welcomes the priority of energy efficiency, especially in apartment buildings. In contrast to the repair of public buildings, where the owner is the only one, the implementation of energy-saving actions in apartment buildings seems to be a much more complicated process. The main reason for this is that it is necessary to obtain the consent of all owners in apartment buildings, which is difficult as many of them live abroad and usually there is no any management or maintenance services for such buildings,” said Ms. Wiktorin.

In this context, Ms. Ambassador praised the efforts of the local project team to improve the energy efficiency of 45 apartment buildings in Spitak and Vayk.

Within the framework of the event, Mr. Sergey Arzumanyan presented the results of the AREEM project and the challenges that the project team faced in the planning and implementation of various works. After the report, a video film was shown to the participants of the event, summarizing the following main achievements in pilot cities:

• Detailed energy audit of 16 MABs;
• Assessment of technical condition of 57 MABs;
• Implementation of construction works on energy-efficient improvements in 45 MABs (33 in Spitak and 12 in Vayk);
• Replacement of entrance doors with new energy efficient doors in 32 buildings of Spitak (additional action);
• Replacement of incandescent and CF lamps with new energy saving LED luminaries in kindergarten N2 of Spitak;
• Energy efficiency retrofitting (thermal insulation of external walls, ceilings and floors, replacement of windows and doors, replacement of luminaries with LED lamps, general improvement works) implemented in the library of the House of Culture in Vayk;
• Installation of a PV power plant with a capacity of 43.5 kW for the kindergarten N2 and town hall of Spitak;
• Installation of 4 PV power plants with a total capacity of 42.9 kW for 6 municipal structures in Vayk;
• Awareness raising and capacity building activities organized for the staff of local administrations and residents (training, workshops, energy days, etc.).

Thanks to the implementation of the above-mentioned activities, both cities will generate about 123.000 MWh of green energy annually, while CO2 emissions will be reduced by about 559 tCO2 annually.

After the presentation of the project results, Mr. Artem Kharazyan, the National expert of the “Covenant of Mayors - East” in Armenia, introduced the ceremony participants to the implementation process and the main achievements of the project in the Eastern Partnership countries, as well as presented an overview of the results of the EC “Covenant of Mayors - Demonstration Projects ”(CoM-DeP), provided by the head of the Program Support Team, Mr. Jan Vaanders.

In the final part of the event, participants in the project, as well as representatives of organizations and companies that took part in the implementation of construction work, were presented with souvenirs and commendations

Recall that the budget of the project “Access to renewable and efficient energy in the municipalities of Vayk and Spitak” amounted to 1,687,539 Euros (EU - 80%, municipalities - 20%), and the project was carried out from December 2014 to December 2019.