1 Journal of Technology Energy JET Volume 9 (2016) p.p. 11-25 Issue 3, October 2016 Typology of article 1.01 www.fe.um.si/en/jet.html SUSTAINABLE ENERGY PLANNING IN SLOVENIAN MUNICIPALITIES TRAJNOSTNO ENERGETSKO NAČRTOVANJE V SLOVENSKIH OBČINAH Keywords: energy efficiency, energy management, Covenant of Mayors, sustainable energy action plan, Slovenia. One of the European initiatives responding to the global challenges of climate change, on the local level, is the Covenant of Mayors (CoM), a voluntary agreement of cities and municipalities to improve energy efficiency, the usage of renewable resources, and carbon dioxide (CO2) reduction by 2020. Our study represents a process of sustainable energy planning and analyses two Sustainable energy action plans (SEAPs) in Slovenia, offering an in-depth view of the improvements, which are composed of technological measures and "soft" measures, such as education and awareness raising. Further recommendations are made regarding the SEAP preparation, implementation, and monitoring, considering a systematic and holistic approach towards more sustainable local communities. Povzetek Ena izmed evropskih iniciativ, ki uresničuje skupne globalne izzive na lokalnem nivoju je t.i. Zaveza županov. Predstavlja prostovoljni dogovor mest in lokalnih skupnosti, z namenom povečati energetsko učinkovitost, uporabo obnovljivih virov in zmanjšanje izpustov ogljikovega dioksida do leta 2020. V našem prispevku predstavljamo proces trajnstnega energetskega načrtovanja in analizo dveh trajnostnih energetskih akcijskih načrtov v Sloveniji. Podrobna analiza ukrepov za izboljšanje prikazuje, da so le-ti sestavljeni iz tehnoloških izboljašav, kot tudi t.i. »mehkih vsebin«, med katere sodita izobraževanje in ozaveščanje. R Corresponding author: Assist. Prof. Rebeka Kovačič Lukman, PhD, University of Maribor, Energy Conversion Laboratory, Hočevarjev trg 1, SI-8720 Krško, Tel.: +386 3 777 0400, E-mail address: rebeka.kovacic@um.si Rebeka Kovačič LukmanR Abstract JET 11 RebekaKovačič Lukman JET Vol. 9 (2016) Issue 3 V zaključkih smo pripravili priporočila za pripravo, implementacijo in spremljanje trajnostnega energetskega načrtovanja, z upoštevanjem sistematičnega in celostnega pristopa k bolj trajnostnim lokalnim skupnstim. 1 INTRODUCTION The European Union (EU) committed itself to becoming an energy-efficient and low carbon economy, by adopting the Climate and Energy Package in 2008, [1]. The Energy Efficiency Directive (EED), [2], was approved in 2012 as the most comprehensive directive on energy efficiency. By 2014 all EU member states (MS) had transposed the EED into their national laws. The EED represents the following targets: a) a 20% energy increase regarding the consumption of the EU by 2020; b) MS shall ensure that from 2014 onward, 3% of the total floor area of public buildings owned or occupied by government be renovated each year; c) achieving new savings each year from 2014 to 2020 of 1.5% of the annual energy sales to final customers of all energy distributors, [3]. By reviewing the progress, the European Commission has prepared an agreement on new energy efficiency targets for 2030, including 27% of savings compared to the business-as-usual scenario, [4]. To support the implementation of climate and energy policies at the local level, the European Commission has launched a Covenant of Mayors (CoM), representing a voluntary agreement towards increasing energy efficiency and usage of renewable resources at the local level, where local governments play a crucial role. The CoM represents a significant commitment to reach the EU sustainability goals, focusing on a 20% reduction of the EU greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from the 1990 baseline year, raising the share of renewables by 20% in the energy consumed, and a 20% increase in energy efficiency, [5]. The CoM commitment covers the geographical area of the local authority, referring to a town, city, municipality or region, [6]. By September 2016, 6201 mayors had become signatories. As argued by Christoforidis et al., [7], the high number of signatories does not necessarily imply that the goals of CoM will be reached, because the commitment is required by the local authorities and their financial capabilities for investments. Regarding the CoM initiative in Slovenia, there have been 29 signatures of commitment, and 29 Action Plans submitted to the CoM. Within them, there are 29 commitments to the 2020 targets, one commitment to the 2030 targets, and two adaptations (Idrija and Odranci) of the Action Plans. This paper represents research work within the Erasmus+ project, Innovative educational tools for Energy Planning, focusing on energy planning and energy efficiency in Slovenian municipalities as the case studies. The paper is organized as follows: Section 2: provides background information on Sustainable energy action plan (SEAP), followed by SEAPs in Slovenia as case studies (Section 3), in which an in-depth review of SEAPs for the Municipality of Velenje and the Municipality of Krško was carried out in order to define the municipalities energy consumption "hot spots" and their measures for improvement. Section 4 analyses sectoral measures of the SEAPs, followed by monitoring activities in Section 5. Section 6 focuses on the results of the emissions reductions needed and discusses the measures to achieve them. Finally, a discussion and conclusions are represented in Section 7. 12 JET Sustainable energy planning in Slovenian municipalities 2 SUSTAINABLE ENERGY ACTION PLAN The Sustainable Energy Action Plan (SEAP) is the main policy act that local authorities should adopt to reach the EU sustainability goals and reach its CO2 reduction by 2020, [8,9], as well as a planning tool to promote the policy strategies, [10]. The SEAP illustrates the applicable procedures to achieve the targets in CO2 emissions reductions, and it is the subject of approval by the CoM office, [7]. It defines concrete reduction measures, time frames, and responsibilities to achieve the settled long-term goals, focusing on the reduction of CO2 emissions and final energy consumption by end users, [6]. The SEAP covers areas where local authorities have an influence, such as land use planning, green public procurement, and changes in consumption patterns. According to Corrado et al., [11], the SEAP is a precise operational tool for defining sustainable development strategies, regulations and actions in line with the policy directions defined by the local authorities. It also includes a future vision of the involvement of citizens and other stakeholders. The preliminary action towards designing an SEAP is to prepare the Baseline Emission Inventory (BEI) data to identify the best fields of action and opportunities to reach the CO2 reduction targets, [6, 7]. The recommended baseline year is 1990, since the Covenant's goal is to reduce the emissions by 20% by 2020 in comparison to the 1990 levels. However, if the data from 1990 are insufficient or unavailable, then a subsequent year must be chosen, [12]. The BEI is divided into four parts: the final energy consumption data, the CO2 emissions, local electricity production and local heat/cold production, [12], and enables the identification of main CO2 emission sources and their reduction potential, including a preparation of the action plan and describing the actions in a more detailed way, [11]. The BEI represents the initial activity for the SEAP, which consists of four phases: Initiation, Planning, Implementation, and Monitoring and Reporting, which described in greater detail in Fig. 1. - Political committment and signing of the Covenant - Adapt city administrative structures - Build support from the stakeholders - Assessment of the current framework - Establishment of the vision - Elaboration of the plan - Plan approval and submission - Implementation of measures - Networking with other CoM signatories - Monitoring - Reporting and submission of the implementation report - Review Figure 1: Tha SEAP process Signing the CoM for a municipality means that after formulating a BEI, the municipality must submit the SEAP within one year of being signed, create an internal management structure for JET 13 RebekaKovačič Lukman JET Vol. 9 (2016) Issue 3 implementing the process involving other stakeholders and citizens, carry out monitoring, and communicate and disseminate the activities, [11]. 3 SEAPs IN SLOVENIA In Slovenia, there are currently 29 SEAPs. In our study, two SEAPs are selected, the Municipality of Velenje (VE), and Municipality of Krško (KK) in order to define their principal activities approaching more energy efficient municipalities. The municipalities of Krško and Velenje have joined the CoM, the committing mayors, and other decision-makers on their field to increase energy efficiency and the use of renewable energy sources, and are undertaking to reduce CO2 emissions by 20% until 2020. Following the recommendation of the European Commission and Joint Research Centre, [12], the scope of the action plans encompasses energy use in: a) Buildings • Municipal building • Tertiary buildings, the buildings of the service sector that are not owned or operated by local communities • Residential buildings b) Transport • The municipal fleet • Public transport • Personal cars and trucks c) Street lighting. The SEAPs are dedicated exclusively to the public sector. However, local communities can, with their policies, role models and the sustainable planning, have a positive impact on energy efficiency and sustainable energy usage in other sectors. Industrial sectors are not covered by the SEAPs. Both SEAPs have identified the main goals, which are in line with the policy directions of the European Commission, [1]: • To reduce CO2 emissions in all sectors, implementing energy efficiency (EE) measures with further exploitation of renewable energy sources (RES), effective management and energy control, education and other measures, • To reduce energy consumption in the public sector (public buildings, transport, and public lighting, • To ensure the security of energy supply and diversity of energy sources. The process of developing the SEAPs was divided into six steps, which were similar to the proposed methodology (see SEAP process, Fig. 1): 1) Preparation process of the SEAP: political will, coordination, and the scope, 2) Elaboration of the SEAP, 3) Approval of the SEAP as an official document for the municipality, 4) Implementation of the SEAP, 5) Monitoring and control of the implementation of the SEAP, 6) Reporting on the implementation of the SEAP. 14 JET Sustainable energy planning in Slovenian municipalities Both municipalities (Velenje and Krško) identified the most significant activity in the preparation of the SEAP, which was achieving the political will for its successful implementation, and necessary consensus and support from the mayor and municipal council. Furthermore, the municipalities have identified the tasks of the municipal administration in the implementation of the SEAP: • To ensure the budget for the implementation of activities and measures, • To integrate the SEAP objectives in the development strategy of the municipality, • To support the implementation of measures and activities of the SEAP, • To ensure tracking and reporting on the implementation of the SEAP, • To communicate with the general and professional public on the implementation of the SEAP, • To provide and encourage citizens for the realization of the SEAP. 3.1 Analyses of energy use In the SEAP for Krško, the reference year was 2005, while it was 2003 for Velenje. For both cases, the CO2 inventory was based on overall energy consumption, using the standard method from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) for GHG emissions, based on the end-use of energy, and have been classified into several categories (see Table 1), not including industry, and long-distance transport. Table 1: Analysis of energy use in the municipalities of Krško (KK) and Velenje (VE), with the reference years 2003 and 2005. Source: SEAP Krško and SEAP Velenje Category VELENJE (VE) Total CO2 KRŠKO (KK) Total CO2 Energy used emissions [t/a] Energy used emissions [t/a] [MW h] in VE [MW h] in KK Buildings 400,302.2 147,488.3 - Public buildings 54,786.3 23,000.7 - Residential buildings 319,113.9 116,303.0 - Other non-residential 26,402.0 8,184.6 buildings Mobility/Traffic 61,159.0 13,081.0 Public lighting 1,694.5 943.8 TOTAL 463,155.7 161,513.1 18,935.3 6,619.3 176,316.0 95,407.2 3,534.0 281,876.5 39,045.1 1,875.1 37,170.0 23,387.2 1,968.4 64,400.7 Table 1 shows that the higher energy consumption belongs to the building category, which represents more than 86% of consumption in Velenje and 60% in Krško. According to Table 1, buildings present the most energy-consuming sector; thus, most of the attention in the SEAP n.a. n.a. JET 15 Rebeka Kovačič Lukman J EV Vol. 9(20)6) lusue 3 will be given to energy efficient and sustainable buildings, including energy efficient renovation of public buildings and exploitation of RES. Regarding the traffic sector, use of public transport is to be fostered, including a purchase of environmentally friendly vehicles. Public lighting represents a relatively low proportion of the contribution of the CO2 emissions to the total balance. However, the measures to improve public lighting will focus on the replacement of the current lamps with more efficient ones. 3.2 Sustainable energy action planning The results of the BEI are followed by the identification of the categories consuming the most energy and thus producing more CO2 emissions, and where the improvements should be made. The Joint Research Centre, [12], argues that the improvement measures must be defined with various criteria (quality and quantity), cover objectives, expected savings, and emission reduction, including timetables, deadlines, budget and risk analyses. Both municipalities plan on achieving 20% CO2 emissions reduction by 2020 according to their baseline years. The SEAPs considered in the case studies were prepared by the local energy agencies (e.g. Local energy Agency Dolenjska and Energy Agency for Savinjska, Šaleška, and Koroška) in collaboration with the municipalities. Several experts from the agencies and municipalities have been included in the preparation of the SEAP from various fields, such as economic mechanical engineering, chemical engineering, etc. Table 2 shows that the intention of both municipalities is to reduce the CO2 emissions by more than 20%, as suggested. Thus, SEAPs for Velenje and Krško define several key actions to achieve their goals in three different sectors. Table 2: Expected CO2 emissions reduction for various sectors. Source: SEAP Velenje and SEAP Krsko Category CO2 reduction Contribution of CO2 reduction Contribution of target per sector action to the overall target per action to the overall (VE) (in tons) emissions reduction sector (KK) (in emissions reduction target (%) for VE tons) target (%) for KK Buildings Mobility/Traffic Public lighting TOTAL 31,392.0 5,444.4 505.0 37,341.4 19.4 3.4 0.3 23.1 11,177.8 4,700.6 1,004.1 16,882.5 17.4 7.3 1.6 26.2 16 JET Sustainable energy planning in Slovenian municipalities 4 SECTORAL ANALYSES OF MEASURES FOR VELENJE'S AND KRŠKO'S SEAPs Within the sectors of buildings, traffic/mobility and public lighting Velenje proposed 31 and Krško 24 measures. 4.1 Buildings The BEIs for both municipalities show that the building category (public buildings, residential buildings, and other non-residential buildings) is very energy consuming and consequently producing over 90% of the total CO2 emissions in Velenje and nearly 65% of the emissions in Krško. In the case of Velenje, 57 buildings of different typologies were considered for the analysis, including kindergartens, schools, dormitories, sport facilities and buildings of local communities). The majority of buildings are heated with the Šaleška Valley district heating system, which is the second largest district heating system in Slovenia, [14], providing energy from a thermal plant, which is a non-renewable energy source. The Krško municipality included 32 buildings in their analysis, mostly primary schools and kindergartens. The analysis shows that the public buildings are mostly heated with natural gas (57%), heating oil (30%), and district heating (13%), while residential buildings use solid fuels (54%) and heating oil (27%). The reasons for low energy efficiency under the building category are not defined in the SEAPs. Corrado et al., [11], argue that factors influencing high energy consumption in the building sector are construction and the limited use of insulating materials for outer walls, one-family heating plants (often oversized and inefficient), and cooling systems. In Velenje's SEAP, [14], 18 measures for public and residential buildings are identified, which consist of 14 "technology/equipment" measures and four "soft" measures. Under the "technology/equipment" measures, such as thermal solar collector systems, the optimization of district heating, the co-financing of energy efficient appliances for households, updating the boiler technology, installation of micro-photovoltaic systems on private buildings, etc., see Table 3. "Soft" measures cover awareness raising. Table 3: Measures, costs, estimated CO2 reduction and assessment of energy savings for Municipality of Velenje, [14] No. Measure Sector Costs [in Estimated Assessment EUR] CO2 of energy reduction savings _[t/a]_[MWh/a] 93 300 55.7 100 27.1 49 7,579 24,447 1 Educational events, Public buildings 4,000/a awareness raising about EE and RES in public buildings 2 PV power plants on public Public buildings 2,500,000 buildings 3 5 thermal solar collector Public buildings 60,000 systems for public buildings 4 Optimization of district Public buildings 1,000,000 heating JET 17 RebekaKovačič Lukman JET Vol. 9 (2016) Issue 3 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 Utilization of district cooling absorption system Optimization of lighting in public buildings Change of electric appliances with more efficient ones Updating technology in boiler rooms of public buildings Replacement of building doors, windows, etc. Supporting the energy /passive construction Educational events, awareness raising about EE and RES in residential buildings Installation of heat dividers Change of non-energy efficient home appliances Installation of systems for the exploitation of thermal solar energy for private houses Change of lighting (bulbs) in residential buildings Replacement of doors, windows and improving the facade Installation of micro PV systems on private buildings Supporting the low energy /passive construction -private houses Change of bulbs to more efficient ones Change of lamps Change of lamps with power of 200-500 W Change of lamps with power of 100-199 W Change of lamps with power of 1-99 W Regulation for public lighting Self-sufficient street lighting Increasing biofuels (7,5 % until 2020) Public buildings Public buildings Public buildings Public buildings Public buildings Public buildings Residential buildings Residential buildings Residential buildings Residential buildings Residential buildings Residential buildings Residential buildings Residential buildings Public lighting Public lighting Public lighting Public lighting Public lighting Public lighting Public lighting Traffic 1,000,000 500,000 500,000 1,000,000 696,486 5,000 2,000,000 1,000,000 11,697,000 1,000,000 300,000 2,500,000 1,200,000 5,000 14,000 73,000 201,240 569,908 338,576 221,416 250,000 848 1,628 678 283 287 3,856 8,328 2,646 87 1,959 2,313 223 126 126 113 125 64 216 0.2 981.1 1,523 2,923 1,218 913 927 12,438 29,851 4,752 280 3,518 7,463 400 226.3 226.3 203 225 115 388 0.4 5 6 7 8 9 18 JET Sestamable nnecsic plsnning inSlovenianmunicipalities 27 Restriction of parking in the Traffic Traffic 108,000 city centre 28 Education and awareness raising 29 Improvement of Traffic 90,000 municipality fleet 30 Supporting car sharing Traffic Traffic 4.500.000 2.500 31 Free public transport The SEAP of Krško [13] introduces 16 public and residential building measures, consisting of 13 technology/equipment measures, such as energy restoration of buildings, co-financing energy efficient appliances for households, installation of biomass boilers, co-generation in public schools, installation of PV power plants, and three soft measures, which are awareness raising, employment of energy manager, and promotion of low-energy construction; see Table 4. Table 4: Meeseres, costs, estimeted CO2 redectioc ecd essessmect of ecerpy sevisps for mecicipality of Krško, [1S] No. Measure Sector Costs [in Estimated EUR] CO2 reduction [t/a] Assessment of energy savings [MWh/a] Educational events, awareness raising about EE and RES in public buildings Public buildings 24,000 98 [total] 2 Energy renovation of public Public buildings 3,598,534 218 buildings 3 Energy renovation of public Public buildings 5,766,120 46 buildings 4 Solar systems for hot water Public buildings 200,000 46 5 Change of electric Public buildings 50,000 34 [total] appliances with more efficient ones 6 Installation of biomass Public buildings 363,000 367 boilers (wood) 7 Co-generation in the public Public buildings 94,270 5,5 school 8 Supporting low energy, Public buildings 5,000 passive construction 9 Installation of PV powe r Public buildings 2,000,000 468 plants 10 Installation of heat dividers Residential 5,000 153 buildings 11 Change of non energy Residential 230,000 1,105 [total] efficient home appliances buildings 12 Replacement of doors, Public buildings 2,990,700 452 [total] windows, etc. 13 Replacement of bulbs ii i Residential 30,000 737 households buildings 14 Employment of a manager Public buildings 90,000 53 [total] of boilers in public buildings SS1 [total] 1.088 109 82 61 [total] 874 27 840 759 1,984 [total] 1,888 [total] 1,323 236 [total] JET 19 1 RebekaKovačič Lukman JET Vol. 9 (2016) Issue 3 15 Energy renovation of Residential 131,555 5.2 10-15% residential buildings buildings 16 Energy renovation of PGE Public buildings 193,950 19 82 Krško 17 Renovation of public lighting Public lighting 299,602 538 [total] 965 [total] 18 Exchange of bulbs with Public lighting 14,000 + 126 [total] 226 [total] more efficient ones 73,000 19 Increasing biofuels (7.5% Traffic 483 until 2020) 20 Parking restriction in the Traffic centre 21 Education, awareness Traffic 12,000/a raising - public transport and mobility 22 Improving the municipal Traffic 35,000/car 0.8 fleet 23 5 stations for electric Traffic 25,000 vehicles 24 New vehicle for firefighters Traffic 25,000 0.2 4.2 Public lighting and local transport/mobility Regarding public lighting, the BEIs for both municipalities show that their public lighting is not efficient, consisting of mostly high-pressure mercury lamps, which could be replaced by highly efficient LED lamps. The improvement measures of the public lighting thus focus on technology/equipment, such as change of bulbs, and regulation and control of public lighting. To reduce the urban GHG emissions from transport/mobility, all the parameters contributing to the emissions need to be examined and are related to the city (municipality) shape and settlement location, [15]. Regarding the CO2 emissions, the municipality fleet, public transport, and personal vehicles have been considered. In both municipalities, personal vehicles represent over 95% of all the CO2 emissions. Velenje's and Krsko's SEAPs propose six transport-related measures, consisting of soft measures (e.g. awareness raising, car sharing, parking restriction in the city centre) and improving the municipal fleet (new, more efficient vehicles and usage of biofuels). 5 SEAP MONITORING 20 JET Sustainable energy planning in Slovenian municipalities process of SEAPs in Velenje and Krško, it could be perceived that in 2016 Krško prepared an updated version of their SEAP, which could be in line with the MEI, while for Velenje, no information regarding the annual and/or biennial achievements was reported, based on the indicators settled. 6 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION When municipalities committed to the voluntary agreement of the CoM, they agreed to reduce their CO2 emissions by at least 20%. In our cases, Velenje suggested cutting their emissions by 23.1% and Krško even my 26.2%, compared to the BEI, see Fig. 2. Thus, Krško needs to reduce the CO2 emissions by almost 17 k tonnes, while Velenje by around 37 k tonnes. Figure 2: Tha 2020 Besatira Emissions Inventory (BEI) end terpats Based on the data in the SEAPs of the municipalities Krško and Velenje, calculations have been made regarding the annual CO2 emissions targets until 2020, see Table 5. The greatest CO2 emissions reductions in both municipalities are expected in the building sector, followed by mobility, and public lighting. JET 21 RebekaKovačič Lukman JET Vol. 9 (2016) Issue 3 Table 5: Annual average reduction of CO2 emissions (in k tonnes) needed per category in VE and KK Year Krško Telen je Buildings Mobility Public lighting Buildings Mobility Public lighting 2003 147.5 13 0.9 2005 39 23.4 1.9 2012 144.01 12.40 0.85 2013 140.52 11.80 0.79 2014 37.41 22.73 1.76 137.03 11.20 0.74 2015 35.81 22.06 1.62 133.54 10.60 0.69 2016 34.22 21.38 1.48 130.05 10.00 0.63 2017 32.63 20.71 1.35 126.56 9.39 0.58 2018 31.03 20.04 1.21 123.06 8.79 0.53 2019 29.44 19.37 1.07 119.57 8.19 0.47 2020 27.85 18.70 0.93 116.08 7.59 0.42 Considering the measures to achieve the 2020 SEAP targets, both municipalities will use a combination of technological improvements and "soft" measures; technological improvements are prevailing in all the measures introduced, and require substantial investments, see Section 4. Furthermore, the expected investment costs for technological improvements regarding the SEAP in Velenje are around 31 million euros and in Krško around 16 million euros. The annual municipality budgets include the investment costs (e.g. Velenje for the year 2015 around 15 million euros); however, the investment budget lines are not specified for the energy efficiency or activities related to the SEAPs. Therefore, the data for SEAPs investments from the municipalities' budgets and potential CO2 reductions cannot be obtained. Both municipalities have made public information regarding their energy efficiency projects, e.g. Velenje's energy renovation of the health centre or Krško's energy renovation of elementary schools, which nevertheless represent too little information in order to make a correlation between the investments made and annual achievements of the CO2 emissions targets. Based on the public information obtained, CO2 emissions reduction under the category of public lighting seems attainable, after the investments made, because LED lighting produces around 80% less CO2 emissions than commonly used high-pressure sodium lamps do, [16]. The building category requires huge investment costs, mostly depending on the municipalities' budget priorities, capabilities to attract investments, especially in the form of public-private partnership, and gaining EU funding. The municipalities are proposing some private-public partnerships and co-financing from EU funds, but unfortunately, information about how many measures were realized through these instruments or how many private investments have been made is not available. Even greater vagueness exists in the mobility category. Measures targeting this category are focusing on parking restrictions, supporting car sharing and public transport. According to the data obtained from the Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia, in both municipalities there is around 0.5 car per capita, meaning that on average every person above 18 owns a car, [17, 18]. Thus, changes in mobility patterns will be needed, including the behaviour of inhabitants. As argued by Louf and Barthelemy, [19], cities are not defined only by 22 JET Sustainable energy planning in Slovenian municipalities spatial and functional issues (e.g. shops, hospitals, etc.), but also by the individuals commuting between places. 7 CONCLUSIONS Urban areas represent a challenge regarding the reduction of CO2 emissions; thus, the CoM represent a valuable and reasonable initiative towards more sustainable city living when implementing SEAPs in the local area. The cases in Slovenia have shown that room for improvement still exists in terms of preparation, implementation, and monitoring, such as considering social aspects, especially planning in a line of the economic situation of the particular local community, selecting measures in the SEAP that improve the condition of the local economy (indirect employment and green jobs). In terms of preparation, the SEAP needs to be designed based on the improvements and measures that are feasible to realize, and not as wish list of actions of the local community, since the planned of implemented measures are not corresponding with the municipalities' existing budgets. Our study has shown that the municipalities are primarily focusing on the building category and its measures, which is the most extensive from the costs perspective but bringing the most positive impacts on the emissions reduction from the quantity perspective. SEAPs also need to be coherent with the priorities of the European Commission to obtain the funding (e.g. improving the public lighting is not a priority within the 2014-2020, but it was in a previous period). This survey also illustrates that, within the implementation phase, municipalities need to appoint an expert, an energy manager with the responsibility to carry out continuous monitoring. An educated energy manager should be a prerequisite and a good solution regarding SEAP implementation and follow-up. SEAPs are also lacking integrated and holistic approaches, and interdisciplinarity regarding the measures, e.g. sustainable urban mobility merges spatial, energy, environmental and social features of the urban area. Furthermore, the implementation needs to be followed by detailed reporting, where investments were made and emissions reduced should be correlated with the municipality budget, public-private partnerships and EU funding, preferably on an annual or biannual basis. Energy planning is an important instrument, although maybe all the emissions reductions of both municipalities would not be achieved until 2020, but with SEAPs municipalities have set goals and made commitments, including political and stakeholders' supports towards more competitive, secure and sustainable energy systems, and GHG reduction targets, representing long-term goals. Acknowledgement The author of this paper would like to thank anonymous reviewers and the Editor-in-Chief, Prof. Jurij Avsec, Phd, for their in-depth comments and advice on improving the quality of the manuscript. The work presented in this paper has been partially financed by the ERASMUS+ Programme, project KA2-HE-17/15. 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