European Restructuring Monitor (ERM)
Eurofound's ERM database on restructuring-related legal regulations provides information on regulations in the Member States of the European Union and Norway which are explicitly or implicitly linked to anticipating and managing change.
Art. 14a, Art. 57, Art. 59, Art. 60, Art. 63 of the Energy Efficiency Act Art. 3 of the Small and medium sized enterprises act
The Energy efficiency act (EEA) aims to enhance energy supply security, energy sector competitiveness and environment protection.
Some of the measures provided for in the EEA include providing energy efficiency improvement activities and measures as well as energy services, establishing a national information system to ensure accessibility and availability of information on the condition of energy efficiency, setting up funding mechanisms for energy efficiency improvement and energy savings certificates, and introducing energy efficiency control and administrative penalty provisions. Regional and local governments are obliged to implement the energy efficiency policy at regional and municipal levels.
Two groups of companies are affected by the EEA - energy suppliers, defined in Article 14a, paragraph 4 with regard to achieving the energy saving targets, and energy consumers, defined in Article 57, paragraph 2, with regard to mandatory energy efficiency surveys. Municipalities, as actors described in Article 63 of the act, together with actors of Article 57 (2) are required to implement energy consumption management activities.
Mandatory energy efficiency surveys (audits) at least once in four years apply to the companies, defined in Article 57, paragraph 2 of the EEA.
This Article defines the thresholds for energy efficiency audits, as follows: all enterprises in the manufacturing and service sector, other than small and medium-sized enterprises, as defined in Article 3 of the Small and medium-sized enterprises act (SMSEA), industrial systems with annual energy consumption in excess of 3000 MWh, all outdoor artificial lighting systems located in settlements with population exceeding 20 000 inhabitants. Other than small and medium-sized enterprises, as defined in Article 3 of SMSEA, are those with average staff of more than 250 employees, and annual turnover of more than BGN 97.5 million (€49.9 million) and/or total assets over BGN 84 million (€42.9 million).
The owners of enterprises, industrial systems and systems for outdoor artificial lighting have obligations for energy efficiency management. Energy efficiency is managed by maintaining databases of the monthly energy generation and consumption by type of energy, carrying out annual analyses of energy consumption and implementation of other energy efficiency improvement measures. For the purposes of energy efficiency management, the obligated parties are required to prepare annual reports and submit them to the Sustainable Energy Development Agency (SEDA) by 1 March of the year following the reporting year.
According to Article 59, the energy audit shall be performed by persons entered in a public register (Article 60) maintained by SEDA. They should be merchants within the meaning given by the Commerce Act, should have at their disposal the requisite technical devices and energy efficiency consultants, both of which should meet specific requirements set forth by dedicated ordinances to the EEA.
The energy audit for companies or energy saving evaluations for enterprises producing, transmitting, distributing and supplying energy, may be performed by the above or by experts of the respective enterprise.
The EEA national target sets forth saving primary energy of at least 27.89% and final energy consumption of at least 31.67% of the reference scenario PRIMES 2007 for the period 1 January 2021 - 31 December 2030. The Act has introduced measures including the obligation to undertake municipal energy efficiency programmes, requirements for energy efficiency labelling, the use of minimum standards for energy efficient appliances, energy efficiency labelling, obligatory energy efficiency surveys (audits) and amendments of the energy performance standards for existing buildings.
Eurofound (2021), Bulgaria: Obligation to undertake energy efficiency audits, Restructuring legislation database, Dublin, https://apps.eurofound.europa.eu/legislationdb/obligation-to-undertake-energy-efficiency-audits/bulgaria
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