By 2016, Bulgaria had to lower the end use of energy by nine per cent, according to an approved national action plan for energy efficiency, Deputy Economy and Energy Minister Galina Tosheva said during an energy efficiency and renewable energy sources conference, as quoted by the Bulgarian News Agency (BTA).

The goal could be achieved only if all the players in the sector – state institutions, municipalities, power suppliers and distributors, and citizens, would act in one and the same direction, Tosheva said.

A considerable amount of energy efficiency measures had already been put into action and they had started to have a positive impact on Bulgaria’s economy, Energy Efficiency Agency (EEA) executive director Tasko Ermenkov said. The agency had spent a lot of effort in the last several years to research, certify and renovate more than 5000 public and municipal buildings, he said.

EEA had also launched similar energy efficiency procedures in more than 340 industrial enterprises, which were larger power users with a total annual power consumption of more than 3000 megawatt-hours. The buildings and plants were subject to obligatory research and certification under the Energy Efficiency Act.

The Economy and Energy Ministry had raised the budget for public buildings’ energy inspection from two million leva to six million leva for next year. Meanwhile, Bulgaria suffered 1.2 billion leva in losses because of poor energy efficiency of publicly-owned buildings. The buildings in the poorest condition in this regard were hospitals, schools and kindergartens.