Resalta to run heating in S. Mitrovica Penitentiary, retrofit system

Resalta d.o.o. is launching a public-private partnership (PPP) in the field of energy efficiency with the Sremska Mitrovica Correctional Institution. The contract was signed on November 22 by Aleksandar Alimpić, the institution’s manager, and Ankica Barbulov, the company’s director for Serbia.

The penitentiary was built at the behest of the Austro-Hungarian Emperor Franz Joseph from 1895 to 1899. It has been in continuous use since then, belonging to Serbia’s criminal justice system since the end of World War One. The capacity is designed to house 1,150 convicted persons, with an average number of 1,280 convicted and 65 detainees in the investigative unit.

New boilers to be fueled by woodchips

The project involves the contractual supply of thermal energy and the renovation of existing systems for its production, in order to ensure a safer and more economical supply to the prison for heating and hot water preparation. Resalta will build a new biomass boiler room and associated storage with two biomass boilers of 1.5 MW each. As the waste from the production of euro-pallets by the Sremska Mitrovica Penitentiary will be used for wood chip biomass, the project will be self-sustaining. It will reduce annual carbon dioxide emissions by 1,400 tonnes, while the financial savings on the production of heat during the contractual period for the public partner will be 7% and will reach up to 72% at the end of the contract.

The boiler room will supply 25 buildings within the penitentiary with thermal energy and provide heat for the preparation of hot water for the needs of 14 buildings, among which are the main pavilions. The new boiler room will provide not only a more stable energy supply to the public partner but also replace the environmentally unfriendly, expensive and soon-to-be-prohibited heating oil with a renewable energy source and significantly reduce CO₂ emissions.

Resalta taking entire responsibility for heating

The duration of the public contract is 15 years, during which the obligations of the private partner are the preparation of the entire project documentation, obtaining all necessary permits in cooperation with the public partner, implementation and financing of all proposed measures of energy efficiency, obtaining permanent usage permits, procurement of biomass, maintenance of the newly designed heat production system, insurance of mechanical and electrical equipment, proper management of the parameters of heat production and reporting to the public partner and the monthly measurements of the delivered quantity of heat.

PPPs in lighting, heating

PPPs enable cities, municipalities and state institutions to improve energy efficiency with private companies through the implementation of various measures. The private partner finances the whole project, and the public partner pays for the investment out of the savings achieved during the contract, during which the private partner provides management and maintenance services. The public partner has zero costs for these projects and immediately benefits from the savings.

Resalta has implemented some of the first public-private partnerships in the field of energy efficiency in Serbia, including lighting in Kruševac and Petrovac na Mlavi as well as the first PPP for the supply of heat in Pirot – for four elementary schools, and the project for the supply of heat to the Gornja Toponica special hospital. Resalta is also part of a consortium that retrofitted 49 buildings in the city of Ljubljana, the largest such project in Southeastern Europe, and is currently working on the second energy retrofit of Ljubljana.