Public Disclosure Authorized Public Disclosure Authorized Public Disclosure Authorized 1 December 20th, 2013 Public Disclosure Authorized 1 The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in this report do not necessarily reflect the views and position of the Table of Contents Executive Directors of the World Bank, the European Union, or the Government of Romania. Executive Summary /1 The TRACE diagnostic is part of work done under the Romania Regional Development Program – a Reimbursable Advisory Methodology /8 Service activity, undertaken by the World Bank at the request Background /11 of the Ministry of Regional Development and Public National Legislation Regarding Energy /11 Administration, with EU funding. The report was written by a Background on Timișoara /17 team comprised of Manuela Moț, Ranjan Bose, Sebastian Burduja, and Marcel Ionescu-Heroiu. Cristina Zirimis has Timișoara Sector Analysis /23 provided logistical and administrative support throughout the Street Lighting /23 process. The team would like to thank the colleagues at the Power Sector /24 Ministry of Regional Development and Public Administration Municipal Buildings /27 (particularly Ionuţ Trincă, Costel Jitaru and Bogdan Ţigău), as District Heating /28 well as the colleagues in the Timișoara City Hall and the Timiș Water Sector /31 County Council, who supported the team throughout. The Solid Waste /34 team would also like to thank peer reviewers Stephen Urban Transport /36 Hammer, Feng Liu, Paula Restrepo, and Pedzi Makumbe, for the excellent feed-back provided. Energy Efficiency Recommendations /47 TRACE (Tool for Rapid Assessment of City Energy) was District Heating /48 developed by ESMAP (Energy Sector Management Assistance Urban Transport /49 Program), a unit of the World Bank, and is available for Street Lighting /56 download and free use at: http://esmap.org/TRACE. Municipal Buildings /57 Annexes /61 1 1 Executive Summary The limitations of TRACE The fact that TRACE is simple and easy to implement, also means that Why a study on energy efficiency? there are limitations with respect to the depth of analysis. For example, The main impetus for this report (and for the reports prepared for the the tool may identify District Heating as the a priority sector in terms of other six growth poles) is a request received from the Ministry of Regional potential energy savings, but it does not go into detail on the required Development and Public Administration. The request came within the costs to complete district heating rehabilitation projects. Thus, even if the context of on-going preparations for the 2014-2020 Programming Period, energy savings potential is assessed to be high, the costs may be even with Energy Efficiency being one the major themes of the Europe 2020 higher, and an investment in the sector may not be warranted. Similarly, strategy, and a critical priority for all EU Member Countries. Within although TRACE specifically focuses on the service areas that fall within Romania, local authorities that will want to access energy efficiency funds the purview of local authorities, the tool cannot factor in the institutional under the 2014-2020 Regional Operational Programme will need to first and legislative mechanisms that need to be in place to make a specific prepare energy efficiency strategies. The TRACE tool is specifically energy efficiency recommendation possible. targeted at local authorities, and is a good instrument for drafting such strategies. Boundaries of studied area While this work focuses on the growth poles in Romania, the analysis was What is TRACE? limited to the boundary of the center city. The reasoning for this is quite The Tool for Rapid Assessment of City Energy (TRACE) is a simple and simple: it is prohibitively difficult to collect individual indicators for all the practical tool for conducting rapid assessments of energy use in cities, The constituent localities of a metropolitan area. In most cases, this would tool helps prioritize sectors with significant energy savings potential, and have required in-depth discussion with over 20 localities, ensuring that all identifies appropriate energy efficiency interventions across six sectors— these localities had the required indicators for a particular service area, transport, municipal buildings, water and wastewater, public lighting, solid and ensuring that they used the same methodology for the calculation of waste, and power and heat. It is a simple, low-cost, user-friendly, and these indicators. Nonetheless, the sector analysis and recommendations practical tool that can be applied in any socioeconomic setting. took the metropolitan scale into consideration, and the section on sound urban planning practices was done at the full metropolitan level. The advantages of TRACE TRACE is one of the most powerful energy efficiency tools, specifically Summary of findings developed for cities. It is simple, easy to implement, and quite intuitive, After the 1989 Revolution, Romania began its transition from a centralized and it allows a quick assessment of energy savings potential in six key system to a market-based economy. Today the country is a member of the public service areas: urban transport; water and wastewater; municipal European Union (EU) and NATO. After more than a decade of economic buildings; street lighting, power and centralized heating; and, solid waste restructuring and political change, the country has taken significant steps management. The tool can be implemented relatively quickly and is not toward catching up with the economic performance of more developed data- or cost-intensive. Moreover it allows local authorities to get a rapid EU countries. Although radical reforms brought about significant changes assessment of their city’s energy performance, and to identify sectors that in recent years, the standard of living of Romanians is still behind the EU may be subjected to a more in-depth analysis. average. Timișoara is an important national transportation hub along the Pan-European Corridor IV, located in the western part of Romania. The city is well connected to the capital city, București (Bucharest) and other 1 major cities in Romania, as well as to Serbia and Hungary. This makes rehabilitation. Like every other city in the country, municipal buildings in Timișoara one of Romania’s main gateways to the West, which enabled Timișoara demand proper measures toward improving energy efficiency – strong cultural and economic ties to neighboring countries. This made the particularly in health care and education facilities managed by the city city become a multicultural and economic hub among the three countries. government. A benchmarking of the municipal building stock, along with Besides its major road and railway network, the city is home to the second audit and retrofit measures, is required in order to identify the highest largest airport in the country in terms of air traffic, from where flights energy savings potential and optimal interventions. The local authorities operate daily to București and a few other major cities in Romania, as well have already started an audit program, which should be continued. as to a number of destinations in Europe. There are indeed many positive things that Timișoara has Timișoara is one of the main economic centers in the western successfully accomplished to date. For one, although it incurs significant part of Romania, with a local industry relying predominantly on the losses in the network, the water sector covers the entire city and water manufacturing sector. In the transition period, due to its proximity to the connections are metered. In recent years, the water network was West, the city attracted a number of significant investments in the region. expanded and the water plants and wastewater facilities have been Several foreign companies from the food-processing and auto-motive modernized. Another sector that is doing well in Timișoara is solid waste. industries, as well as the services sector, poured into the city and the The city residents are responsive to the selective collection system that wider metropolitan area. Today, Timișoara is host to 20 of the largest has been implemented a few years ago. More than 95% of the streets in foreign companies established in Timiș County. the city are lit, and the network has been expanded to new emerging The transition period after the end of the communist regime has residential areas. Currently, the LED bulbs are being tested under a pilot led to significant changes in the social and economic life of the residents project covering the lighting poles along the Bega Channel. Timișoara has of Timișoara. Some of these developments have positively affected a functional public transport system, including trams, trolleybuses, and people’s lives, whereas a few came along with inconveniences and buses, in addition to a good non-pedestrian network. The municipal difficulties. Unlike other localities in Romania that lost inhabitants, authorities have concrete plans to further expand on the existing bike Timisoara is one of the few cities where population actually increased (by lanes and walkways. Some of the historical buildings in the city center 0.5%). have been renovated. Rehabilitation work has been performed in Similar to a country-wide trend, the rising number of cars in the residential buildings too, as well as in some of the public facilities, past two decades has caused heavy traffic congestion, increased fuel including schools, healthcare and social assistance