The Energy Upgrade of Public Buildings at the focus of the specialized training seminar of the BENEFIT project, held on Wednesday, December 7th in Thessaloniki

The specialized training seminar was organised on Wednesday 7^th December 2022 in the hotel «GRAND HOTEL PALACE» at Thessaloniki.

The specialized training seminar opened with the welcome speech and the presentation of the BENEFIT project by Dr. Ioannis Kotziampasis, Project Manager & Deputy Head, Ministry of the Interior (Sector of Macedonia and Thrace).

The first session entitled “Framework and methodologies to support public institutions in the planning and implementation of energy improvement projects in public buildings” opened with the presentations of Mrs. Eleni Chatzigeorgiou, Civil Engineer MSc, Center for Renewable Energy Sources and Saving (CRES) and Dr. Athanasios Lambropoulos, Energy Inspector, Bioeconomy and Environment Cluster Western Macedonia (CLuBE) who were referred to the «Mapping of the building stock of public buildings and prioritization of energy saving interventions: methodology, techniques, tools and the first results in the context of the BENEFIT project».

Dr. Michalis Petrakos, General Secretary of the Municipality of Prespes presented “The Mayors Convention of Climate and Energy and the integration of its commitments in the Local Action Plans for the Sustainable Energy and the Climate”.

Following, Mr Theodoros Gkiourkas, Civil Engineer MSc, Bioeconomy and Environment Cluster Western Macedonia (CLuBE) made a presentation concerning the “100 Climate-Neutral Cities up to 2030 from and to the citizens”.

Immediately after, Mr Dimitrios Kitsikopoulos from ELECTRA ENERGY, presented the topic “Financial tools and instruments for the planning and implementation of energy efficiency interventions in the Public Sector. The energy communities in Greece and in Europe”.

The first session was concluded with the presentation of Mrs Argiro Giakoumi, Physicist MSc, Center for Renewable Energy Sources and Saving (CRES) under the topic «Upgrading municipal buildings in the Municipality of Vari-Voula-Vouliagmeni through an Energy Performance Contract – The PRODESA project».

The second session of the seminar entitled «Examples of model and pilot actions to improve the energy efficiency of buildings» began with the presentations of Mrs. Konstantia Dimitrakoudi, Civil Engineer, Technical Responsible of BENEFIT Project, Ministry of the Interior (Macedonia and Thrace Sector), Mrs Lila Dedemadi, Architect, in charge for the architectural study and Mr. Giorgos Moustakas, Mechanical-Electrical Engineer, responsible for the implementation of interventions in the heating system. The presentations of all three focused on the «Pilot application in the context of the BENEFIT project | Energy upgrade interventions in the building of Dioikitirio».

Afterwards, Dr. Argyro Dimoudi, Associate Professor, Department of Environmental Engineering, Democritus University of Thrace, made a presentation on «Renovation of a building into an almost zero energy consumption Art Gallery».

«Examples of energy upgrade projects in public buildings – Energy upgrade interventions in the EYATH building» was the title of the case presented by Dr. Alexandros Mendes, Civil Engineer, Director of Strategic Planning, Projects and Development, EYATH S.A.

Ακολούθως, ο κ. Αθανάσιος Μανωλούδης, Μηχανολόγος Μηχανικός MSc, Ενεργ. Επιθεωρητής, ανάδοχος εκπόνησης Σχεδίου Ενεργειακής Απόδοσης Κτιρίων Δήμου Θεσσαλονίκης και η κα. Ιωάννα Τσικώτη, Μηχανολόγος Μηχανικός MSc, Δήμος Θεσσαλονίκης πραγματοποίησαν παρουσίαση με θέμα την «Ενεργειακή αναβάθμιση δημοτικών κτιρίων και σχολείων – Παρεμβάσεις ενεργειακής αναβάθμισης σε σχολικό συγκρότημα του Δήμου Θεσσαλονίκης».

After, Mr. Athanasios Manoloudis, Mechanical Engineer MSc, Energy Inspector, Contractor for drawing up the Energy Performance Plan for the Municipality of Thessaloniki and Ms. Ioanna Tsikoti, Mechanical Engineer MSc in the Municipality of Thessaloniki made a joint presentation on «Energy upgrade of municipal buildings and schools – Energy upgrade interventions in a school complex of the Municipality of Thessaloniki».

The «Energy upgrade of municipal buildings – the case of the Municipality of Prespa» was analyzed by Mr. Evangelos Karagiannis, Head of the Department of Planning, Transparency and Informatics in the Municipality of Prespa.

Finally, an interactive workshop based on a board game about energy and energy-responsible behavior in adults and children was held by the Working Group of the SOLIS project, FISE Research Group, Preschool Education Department of the University of Ioannina.

Στο εξειδικευμένο εκπαιδευτικό σεμινάριο παραβρέθηκαν στελέχη ΟΤΑ και δημοσίων υπηρεσιών, με πολύ σημαντική τη συμμετοχή ειδικά των τεχνικών τους υπηρεσιών, ενώ χαιρετισμό απηύθυνε ο κ. Σπύρος Αρσενίου, Συντονιστής της Κοινής Γραμματείας του Προγράμματος.

The specialized training seminar was attended by executives from local authorities and public institutions, while Mr. Spyros Arseniou, Coordinator of the Programme’s Joint Secretariat, made a short introduction speech in the beginning of the seminar.

Basic info concerning the project

The BENEFIT project aims to address the growing demand to improve the energy efficiency of public buildings and convert them into buildings with reduced or near-zero energy consumption. The main common cross-border challenges to be addressed by the BENEFIT project are: (a) addressing the inadequacy of public administrations in this area, (b) developing reliable, efficient and effective energy action plans for public buildings, (c) enhancing experience in the application of advanced energy modeling methodologies, (d) facilitating the collection of building energy data, (e) enriching knowledge by applying special methodological tools to classify buildings into typologies and (f) developing a specialized decision support system for planning energy upgrades.

Η δράση εντάσσεται στο έργο «Βελτιώνοντας την ενεργειακή απόδοση : Επίδειξη σε δημόσια κτίρια» με ακρωνύμιο «BENEFIT», το οποίο συγχρηματοδοτείται από την Ευρωπαϊκή Ένωση και από Εθνικούς πόρους της Ελλάδας και της Δημοκρατίας της Βόρειας Μακεδονίας 2014-2020 στο πλαίσιο του Προγράμματος Interreg IPA- CBC “Ελλάδα – Δημοκρατία της Βόρειας Μακεδονίας 2014-2020”.

The training seminar is part of the project « Building ENergy EFficiency ImprovemenT: Demonstration for public buildings» with the acronym «BENEFIT», which is co-funded by the European Union and national resources of Greece and Republic of North Macedonia within the framework of the Interreg IPA CBC Programme «Greece – Republic of North Macedonia».

Disclaimer:

The content of the press release is the sole responsibility of the Ministry of the Interior (Sector of Macedonia and Thrace) and in no way reflects the views of the European Union, the participating countries, the Administrative Authority and the Joint Secretariat.