About Black Sea Energy Research Centre
IDENTITY
The Black Sea Energy Research Centre is a non-governmental organization in public interest founded in 2007, as a successor of the Black Sea Regional Energy Centre, established in 1995 at the initiative of the European Commission and the countries of the Black Sea Region. BSERC is registered in Sofia, Bulgaria according to the national legislation.
BSERC acts as a focal point for energy related activities, aimed at developing the co-operation between the Black Sea region countries and the EU in the energy field. The Centre co-operates closely with all the Black Sea countries in order to be well informed with the national trends and developments. Apart from its international activities BSERC is actively involved in the Bulgarian energy issues, acting as a Bulgarian energy society.
BSERC has a wide network of high-level energy experts providing services to the Centre, which enables the good co-operation among the energy market players, including energy sector organizations, ministries, public and private enterprises, and individuals, not only in Bulgaria, but also in the whole Black Sea region, and thus ensures the opportunity to meet the actual needs of the energy market actors.
FIELDS OF ACTIVITY
The main fields of activity of the Centre are:
- Harmonization of the energy legislation of the BSR countries and of Bulgaria in particular, with the EU legislation;
- Security of the energy supply;
- Promotion of renewable energy and climate protection;
- Energy efficiency and rational use of energy;
- Networking, exchange of experience and dissemination of energy-related information.
Harmonization of the BSR countries' energy legislation with the EU legislation
BSERC has been actively working on the harmonization of the energy legislation of the Black Sea Region countries with the EU one, targeting to improve the investment climate and to encourage foreign investments in the energy sector.
The Centre, together with EU and local consultants, has performed projects directed towards implementation of requirements and conditions of the main EU political and legislative documents.
The Centre drafted and/or assisted the energy authorities of Bulgaria in the elaboration of the Energy Law, Energy Efficiency Act, Energy from Renewable Sources Act, Energy Strategy and various secondary legislative documents. Expert services have also been provided to the State Energy Regulatory Commission on the Energy Services Quality Regulation and on the Development of Electricity Network and Metering Codes for the future liberalization of the electricity market.
Security of energy supply and promotion of renewable energy
The Centre has undertaken a number of initiatives and studies dedicated to the diversification of energy supply and enhancement of the interconnection of electricity grid.
Additionally, many projects focusing on renewable energy have been carried out, focusing on:
- Transfer of RES-utilization technologies;
- Evaluation of the economic, environmental, social, and policy aspects;
- Financing sources and schemes;
- Technical complications related to the integration of RES installations to the grid;
- Legislation and regulations;
- RES deployment strategies and research priorities;
- Training, promotion and dissemination.
Energy efficiency and rational use of energy
Energy efficiency is vital for the Black Sea countries’ economies and the Centre has devoted significant part of its activity in this domain. Considerable experience and expertise have been gained in performing energy audits in industry and in building sector, assessing the EE potential at national and local levels, development of municipal energy balances and plans, training and dissemination of EU best practices.
In order to enhance its capacity, the Centre is actively co-operating with high level experts from the Technical Universities of Sofia and Varna. Jointly with them, the Centre has successfully performed a number of projects on RUE in the field of industry and buildings.
Energy efficiency services (EES) gain increasing importance in the last years. The Centre has put efforts to support the development of EES market in Bulgaria. Activities include assistance to private EES providers for the development of marketing strategies and business plans, training, development of a code of conduct, and promotion of best practices.
At the legislative level the Centre has worked on the development of the Energy Efficiency Strategy and Action Plan of Bulgaria. The Centre contributed considerably to the development of the Bulgarian Energy Efficiency Law as well. It has worked on the harmonization of the Bulgarian legislation with the Energy Services Directive and Energy Efficiency Directive (see CA-ESD and CA-EED projects).
Dissemination of information
The dissemination of information is one of BSERC’s priorities, implemented through organization of workshops, conferences, seminars, trainings, maintaining of web-sites, publishing of newsletters and brochures, etc. It is aimed at transferring information about policies, technologies, organizational structures, key persons and experience in energy activities.
BSERC has gained significant experience in the organization of high-level energy Conferences. Additionally, BSERC has organized more than 50 seminars, workshops, training courses, forums, and other events in the countries of the Black Sea region.
PROJECTS
During its more than 20-year operation, the BSERC (and its predecessor BSREC) has been involved in more than 60 projects within EC programmes: PHARE, SYNERGY, THERMIE, SAVE, Framework programmes for RTD (FP5, FP6, FP7), Intelligent Energy – Europe (EIE), Interreg, Horizon 2020. Additionally, BSERC has been working on many other projects, funded by USAID, the World Bank, CIDA, EBRD and national sources.