1 June 2007 Cluj-Napoca, Romania - Lighting Engineering Center ...

International Conference ILUMINAT 2007
ABSTRACT
GREENLIGHT IN ROMANIA
RUS Coriolan Titus, CORHA Cornel
ARCE – Romanian Agency for Energy Conservation
The European GreenLight programme is an on-going initiative from the European Commission
whereby voluntary organisations commit to adopting energy-efficient lighting measures when these
are profitable and maintain or improve lighting quality. At the time of this writing, 93 public and private
organisations have signed the GreenLight partnership. Major players have joined the movement and
several GreenLight upgrades have got off the ground. Given its success, the programme was
extended in 2002 to the Candidate Countries, including Romania where the Romanian Agency for
Energy Conservation (ARCE) has agreed to act as Greenlight National Contact Point. ARCE has
volunteered to promote the programme and enrol the first Romanian Partners.
INTRODUCTION
The GreenLight programme is an on-going voluntary programme whereby private and public
organisations (referred to as Partners) commit to adopting energy-efficient lighting measures when (1)
the cost of these measures is repaid by the associated savings 1 and (2) lighting quality is maintained
or improved. In return for their commitment, not only do these Partners benefit from the savings, but
they also receive broad public recognition for their effort in protecting the environment.
The GreenLight programme started in 2000 upon the European Commission’s initiative (EC),
with support from the national energy agencies of 13 Member States, plus Norway (NOVEM 1999). At
the end of 2002, the programme was opened to the Candidate Countries, including Romania where
the Agency for Energy Conservation (ARCE) agreed to promote the programme.
The objective of this paper is to introduce the GreenLight programme to potential Romanian
Partners, showing them some pertaining GreenLight success stories.
WHAT IS THE GREENLIGHT PROGRAMME?
The GreenLight programme helps voluntary non - residential electricity consumers (public or private),
referred to as Partners, save money and reduce pollution by increasing the energy efficiency of their
lighting. The core of the programme is a Registration Form, signed by the Partner and the
Commission, in which the Partner commits to:
For existing spaces:
Either upgrade at least 50% of the spaces owned or on long term leases (5 years or more)
where the investment is profitable or, alternatively, reduce the total aggregate lighting electricity
consumption by at least 30%.
For determining if an energy-efficient lighting investment passes the profitability test, the
Partner can choose either to use as criterion (1) an Internal Rate of Return 2 (IRR) of 20% calculated
over a period of 15 years or alternatively (2) the Least Life Cycle Cost rule over the project’s lifetime
(minimum 5 years).
The least Life Cycle Cost rule consists in accepting an energy-efficient lighting investment
when the resulting Net Present Value 3 (NPV) of the investment is above or equal to 0.
For new spaces:
New installations must be chosen so that no alternative installation exists that would:
• maintain or improve the lighting quality provided by the chosen installation and
1 GreenLight applies to 50% of the eligible upgrades. Eligible upgrades are those yielding an Internal Rate of Return above 20%.
2 The Internal Rate of Return is the interest rate that equates the present value of expected future cash flows to the initial cost of
the project. Expressed as a percentage, IRR can be easily compared with loan rates to determine an investment’s profitability.
For a stream of equal cash flows, an IRR of 20% over a 15 - year period corresponds to a payback time of 4.7 years.
3 The Net Present Value is the total cash flow that the project generates over its lifetime, including first costs (counted
negatively), with discounting applied to cash flows that occur in the future (money savings, counted positively).
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