Energy Administration and Institutions, Funds and Programmes
Public administration
Ministry of Economy
The Ministry of Economy, and within it, the Department of Energy is responsible for the energy sector. The Building Department is responsible for the building policy including energy efficiency and the introduction of environmental criteria. The Housing Policy Department is responsible for the development and maintainance of housing policy in cooperation with the respective subordinated institutions.
Latvia is a member of the Baltic Sea Region Energy Cooperation (BASREC) which was established after a joint decision of the energy ministers of the Baltic Sea region countries and the European Commission,in 1999. The members of the Cooperation are as follows: Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Poland, Russia, and Sweden. The European Commission is represented by DG TREN, the Directorate General for Transportation and Energy.
State Energy Crisis Centre
The State Energy Crisis Centre includes representatives of ministries and the largest enterprises. The Department of Energy of the Ministry of Economy is the Secretariat of the Crisis Centre.
Public Utilities Commission (PUC)
The Public Utilities Commission is a public utilities regulation institution, which has started its operation in October 2001 taking over the responsibilities of the Energy Regulation Council, Telecommunication Tariffs’ Council, Railway Administration and the Ministry of Transport. The PUC is supervised by the Ministry of Economy, and the Council of Regulators is appointed by the Parliament. One of the main objectives of the PUC is to set and approve tariffs for public utilities (energy, telecommunications, post, and railway). The Comission also issues operating licences to public utility companies.
Ministry of Environment
The Ministry of Environment has the responsibility to prepare and implement a national policy for environmental protection, nature protection, preservation and rational use of natural resources, planning of regional development, development of tourism, hydrometeorology, construction, housing and exploitation of subsoil, to draft legal acts within its jurisdiction, harmonizing them with requirements of the European Agreement and the European Commission, as well as ensure their implementation.
The Department of Climate and Renewable Energy Sources of the Ministry of Environment is directly involved with energy and environment issues and policies. Its main tasks are the successful implementation of climate change reduction legislation, the introduction of innovative and best available technologies in the field of energy, and ensuring an increase of the RES share in the latvian energy balance. The tasks are divided between two subdepartments: Climate Policy and Pilot Project Implementation.
Riga Energy Agency
Riga Energy Agency is a municipal agency which was established in 2007. It’s responsibilities involve the development of a concept for the Riga DH system, the implementation of a Program for increasing energy efficiency in the city, providing information on energy efficiency issues, cooperating with local and foreign governmental and non-governmental institutions.
Radiation Safety Centre
The Radiation Safety Centre, is a government authority with the task to protect the people and the environment from the harmful effects of radiation. The RDC was established in 2001. Latvia itself does not operate nuclear power plants, but there are approximately 900 companies that are controlled by the Centre.
Energy related organisations
Construction, Energy and Housing State Agency
The Construction, Energy, and Housing State Agency is an institution operating under supervision of the Ministry of Economy, which was established in October, 2007. The main function is the development of energy programs and establishment of cooperation with local and foreign governmental and no-governmental institutions.
Ekodoma
Ekodoma is an independent engineering consulting company. Its main working areas are energy, environment, and economics. The scope of activities concentrates on energy management, technology, efficiency and conservation. These activities are combined with tender documentation, evaluation and several follow-up activities, training, seminars and workshops. It provides energy audits, conceptions of development of energy supply systems and energy planning, etc. Following an integrated approach Ekodoma is putting strong emphasis on the economic, social, legal and administrative framework of strategies for energy policies.
Ekodoma participates in several international projects, focused on the implementation of international programs, such as Intelligent Energy – Europe programms, and AIJ projects for the Swedish and Dutch government. It also co-operates with international and local ministries, agencies and companies of several European countries (e.g. Denmark, Germany, UK, Norway and the Netherlands). Ekodoma prepared the National Emission Allocation Plan 2005-2007 and 2008-2012 for Latvia and is an active participant in the development of many governmental energy and environment planning and startegy documents.
Institute of Energy Systems and Environment (IESE) of Riga Technical University
IESE is active in energy and environmental research, renewable energy resources (biomass, biohydrogen, solar), energy efficiency and rational use of energy. Special attention in RTU-ESE is paid to climate change policy, GHG reduction technologies and sustainable energy development. The Institute offers bachelor, master, and PhD study programs, conducts scientific researches on a local and international level in cooperation with major foreign scientific institutions, participates in the most significant conferences and other events with presentations and lectures, and takes active part in development of local energy and environment policy.
IPE-LAS - Institute of Physical Energetics Latvian Academy of Sciences
IPE-LAS is active in energy research, such as modelling and analysis of energy-environment interactions, energy-environmental policy studies, energy efficiency, problems of the use of renewable and domestic (biomass, peat) energy resources, etc. It gives special attention to the integration of the technologies directed towards rational use of energy to ensure sustainable development of the energy sector in Latvia and optimisation of the Latvian heat energy production and consumption systems.
Baltic Environmental Forum
The Baltic Environmental Forum was founded by the Baltic Ministries of Environment, Germany and the European Commission as a technical assistance project aiming at strengthening the co-operation among the Baltic environmental authorities. It implements projects in the fields of nature conservation, climate change and energy, pollution control, waste, and others.
Heat Companies Association
Association of Heat Companies is a professional organization for heat supply companies, consulting and installation companies, heating equipment suppliers, and other members. The association aims to develop district heating supply and cogeneration, to introduce modern efficient technologies, maximise use of local fuels, to increase energy efficiency and environmental protection, and to reduce the consumers costs.
Energy related funds and programmes
EU Structural Funds and EU Cohesion Fund
The Structural Funds are devoted to promoting the development and structural adjustment of regions whose development is lagging behind. The Single Programming Document for Latvia mainly concentrates on promoting the development of infrastructure, productive sector and competitiveness, as well as on human resources development. For the period between 2007-2013 the funds are divided as follows:
- 38.34% - development and efficient application of human resources
- 23.78% - increase competitiveness and knowledge based economy
- 37.88% - public service and infrastructure improvement as a precondition for state balanced developments, which also includes the environment, energy efficiency (housing), and the transport sector.
LEIF – Latvian Environmental Investment Fund
The Latvian Environmental Investment Fund (LEIF) was established as a non-profit limited liability company under the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Regional Development in order to strengthen and further develop Latvian co-operation with international organisations and agencies supporting environmentally friendly projects. The main objective of the Fund is to finance environmentally friendly projects, granting long-term loans on favorable conditions for projects in private and public sectors through combining local financial resources with foreign ones,. Several hundred projects such as boiler houses, district heating systems, water supply system reconstruction, waste treatment plant recultivation, and others were financially supported by LEIF. The necessary cofinancing was provided by the UN, Phare, Latvian government, Latvian Environment Protection Fund, and other institutions.
Latvian Environmental Protection Fund Administration
LEPFA is the holder of the state budget fund, which is meant for implementation of environment projects and activities. The institution is responsible for distribution of these financial means to project applicants and spending in the supported projects and activities to fullfill the main aims of the state in the environmental sector.
CEEF – Commercializing Energy Efficiency Finance
Since 2003, the CEEF program – Commercializing Energy Efficiency Finance – is under implementation in Latvia. It is a guarantee program for energy efficiency projects and third party financing. The guarantee fund amounts to USD 90million. The program includes technical assistance activities as well as training of commercial banks on EE projects. The program will be terminated with the end of 2008.
COFITECK
Project Cofiteck - Co-firing – from research to practice: technology and biomass supply know-how promotion in Central and Eastern Europe is aimed at promoting and disseminating knowledge of co-firing technologies in the power production sector by a set of actions, comprising of information and awareness activities, promotion of technological solutions as well as logistic, economic and environmental optimization of fuel supply chain. Additionally, it should establish and reinforce the networks of energy stakeholders and research institutes in the New EU Member States (NMS) of the Central-East European (CEE) region.
CHANGING BEHAVIOUR
Changing Behaviour is an action research project implemented in several EU countries, including Latvia. Researchers and practitioners work together to develop, test and refine tools for improved interaction that are sensitive to context, timing and the needs of different users and stakeholders.
Intelligent Energy Europe
Many projects have been and are being implemented in the frame of Intelligent Energy Europe programme, please see a selection below:
New Green Light Programme
The GreenLight Programme is an on-going voluntary programme whereby private and public organisations commit towards the European Commission to reduce their lighting energy use, thus reducing polluting emissions. GreenLight was launched in February 2000 and Latvia participates since May 2002. Currently more than 15 Partners and 10 endorser participate in the Latvian Green Light Programme.
BiG>EAST
BiG>East project promotes the production and use of biogas as a secure and sustainable energy source in several target countries of Southern and Eastern Europe, including Latvia.
INOFIN
InoFin is building on the previous LOCOSOC project, which estimated the refurbishment potentials and costs for social housing refurbishment in Eastern Europe. Its aim is to take the experiences from the different countries and design tailored financing schemes that could mobilize capital for improving the living conditions in Eastern Europe.
ENERY 4 COHESION
In the frame of the "Energy 4 Cohesion" project, a knowledge basis for the implementation of Renewable Energy (RE) actions in less developed rural regions of Europe should be developed. The project's focus is on dimensioning the RE actions which are relevant to receive financial support by Structural and Cohesion Funds during the funding period from 2007-2013. It demonstrates best practice in eight selected target regions by designing comprehensive Master Plans. Their aim is to facilitate the implementation of RE actions in the selected regions by identifying the available funding mechanisms and suitable cooperation schemes.
4EM-MCP
The Motor Challenge Programme is a European Commission voluntary programme (launched in February 2003) through which industrial companies are aided in improving the energy efficiency of their Motor Driven Systems. Any enterprise or organisation planning to contribute to the Motor Challenge Programme objectives can participate.
Green Light Porgramme
The GreenLight Programme is an on-going voluntary programme whereby private and public organisations commit towards the European Commission to reduce their lighting energy use, thus reducing polluting emissions. GreenLight was launched in February 2000 and in Latvia since May 2002.
United Nations Development Programme: Developing Capacities in Education and Research for Strengthening Global Environmental Management in Latvia. The objective of the project is to build capacity at all appropriate levels for systematized environmental education and strategic and adaptive research focused on enhancing national responses to country obligations under the global environmental conventions.
