The City Municipality of Daugavpils joins the eeef Technical Assistance programme to improve its street lighting infrastructure

The City Municipality of Daugavpils is the first public authority from the Republic of Latvia that will participate in the Technical Assistance (TA) programme, thus strengthening the Fund's Facility position in the Baltic Region.

Daugavpils is the second largest city, located in south-eastern Latvia, on the banks of the Daugavpils River. It is one of the nine Republic Cities (Daugavpils, Jēkabpils, Jelgava, Jūrmala, Liepāja, Rēzekne, Riga, Valmiera, and Ventspils) and has a population of around 82 thousand inhabitants and been considered a multicultural and multi-ethnic city.

In July 2022, the eeef and the Daugavpils City Municipality signed a TA Agreement to enhance energy efficiency in the city by upgrading its public street lighting infrastructure. The objective is to prepare and implement a street lighting modernization project. It targets to complete an economic feasibility model/energy audit for the street lighting system, which comprises 7,665 to 9,000 luminaries, 141 cabinets, ca. 80km cables, ca. 2000 (units) poles, and an intelligent lighting system, among others.

According to a preliminary assessment, the total investment needed to implement the sustainable energy investment programme is circa EUR 7.8m. This will facilitate Daugavpils City Municipality to reach a more efficient street lighting system, improved lighting quality, and energy levels that contribute to the local and national targets by reducing energy consumption, costs, and CO2 emissions through energy-efficient solutions, improved management, and maintenance practices. The TA services, provided by experienced consultants, will support the efforts of the Administration's employees to prepare the project. Supported services include the preparation of a technical feasibility study/energy audits and investment project for the street lighting infrastructure, evaluation of the economic viability of the investment, structuring of the tender documents to align with the PPP / ESCO model, external advisors, and legal analysis.

‘Daugavpils municipality is the first municipality in Latvia working under the European Community programme to implement the investment; while targeting to use the PPP model which is not widely used to date in Latvia, we are proud to ‘open’ the market for further projects in cooperation with eeef’, notes Valerijs Kononovs, the deputy Mayor of Daugavpils City.

In the context of the TA Facility - funded by eeef in collaboration with the European Investment Bank ("EIB") – European Local Energy Assistance ('ELENA') TA Facility under the Horizon 2020 Programme of the European Union - the eeef is welcoming other European public authorities to join the eeef TA Facility, as it is available for further applications. Please visit: TA Facility

The European Energy Efficiency Fund (eeef) S.A., SICAV-SIF is a "société d'investissement à capital variable" governed by Luxembourg law and initiated by the European Commission in cooperation with the European Investment Bank. eeef increased the initial capitalisation provided by the European Commission with contributions from the sponsors European Investment Bank, Cassa Depositi e Prestiti, Deutsche Bundesstiftung Umwelt, as well as the Investment Manager, DWS. eeef is an innovative public-private partnership dedicated to mitigate climate change through energy efficiency measures and the use of renewable energy in the Member States of the European Union.