In 2013, jointly with the European Commission, the Energy Community Secretariat, WBIF and bilateral donors, the EBRD established the Regional Energy Efficiency Programme (REEP). The purpose of the programme is to provide loans, supported by grants and technical assistance to the Western Balkans region for i) financing instruments for specific energy efficiency and renewable energy investments with clear estimates of energy savings and carbon emission reductions ii) technical assistance and grant elements to support project preparation, implementation and capacity building; and iii) policy dialogue to support the development of an enabling environment for sustainable energy.
Building upon these efforts, REEP Plus was developed in 2017 to scale up the investments in sustainable energy opportunities in the Western Balkans and expand the scope of the support to include the residential sector. For these reasons, the Credit Line Facility to local partner banks for the residential sector was introduced under REEP Plus, delivered by EBRD and complemented by technical assistance support with a WBIF allocation of €1.8 million.
The objective of technical assistance was to support partner financial institutions (PFIs) in marketing, training of PFI staff, sub-project identification, preparation and monitoring, facility administration and verification of completed sub-projects. As part of TA, the selected consultant was also actively engaged with vendors and manufacturers of green technologies to support the population of the Technology Selector, a database of energy-efficient technologies eligible for financing under the facility.
