Lighting Conference Montenegro

Overview

The Conference on Energy Efficient Lighting was held on April 28th, 2011 at the Crna Gora Hotel in Podgorica, in the organization of the Ministry of Economy and German International Cooperation (GIZ). Such a conference that deals with specific topics as the quality of lighting along with rational energy consumption has been held for the first time both in Montenegro and in the region.

The Conference gathered relevant political subjects and economic operators with a view to disseminating the idea and finding new possibilities of cooperation in the area of energy efficiency with emphasis on energy efficient lighting and energy management in local government.

Topics

Topics of the Conference were legislation in the area of lighting, European standards and possibilities for developing energy efficient lighting in Montenegro. Special attention was paid to street lighting, signposting and possible forms of financing and developing such projects, as well as to energy efficient lighting of internal premises and possibilities of lighting with state-of-the-art lighting bodies, lighting quality in schools, office buildings, residence buildings, etc.

Aims

The Conference aimed, among others, at linking the domestic and foreign market, private and public sector, institutions and organizations with activities in the area of energy efficient lighting and the promotion and enhancement of energy efficiency in Montenegro. Participating in the Conference represented a special opportunity for obtaining information and establishing the necessary contacts with experts from this area.

Participants

This Conference was characterized by a high level of interest of domestic professionals that surpassed all expectations of the conference organizers. The Conference was attended by around 150 representatives of private businesses, state institutions, universities, students, etc., which is a clear indicator of the need of domestic experts for gaining new knowledge, establishing new contacts in this area and, in general, of the grown need for dedicating more attention to this topic than it has been the case so far.

Furthermore the Conference has been attended by renowned manufacturers and distributors of lighting equipment like Swarco, Osram, Siteco, Regiolux, Winsol and Minel-Schreder, which also exhibited their products, apart from prepared presentations of their companies, in the foyer in front of the conference room, so that the participants in the Conference had the opportunity to establish direct contacts with the representatives of these companies.

Opening

The Conference was opened by Minister Vladimir Kavarić, Ph.D. and the GIZ country director for Montenegro Mr. Peter Bonin. In his introductory words, Minister Kavarić emphasized that: “…without significant improvement of energy efficiency, no economically and environmentally sustainable energy supply can be guaranteed in the long term“. On the other hand, Peter Bonin pointed out that „... with a view to finding new solutions for energy efficient lighting systems, several steps should be made that comprise the continuation of political willingness, availability of efficient technologies, services and, of course, financing mechanisms...“

Organisational structure

The Conference has been divided into four structural parts:
• In the first part, after the welcome speeches, general topics as lighting, legislation, European standards and possibilities for the development of energy efficient lighting in Montenegro were addressed;
• The second part of the Conference was thematically dedicated to outdoor lighting, where we were expecting special interest from the local government, i.e. from the employees in charge of issues of energy consumption and energy efficiency in local government bodies. Various possibilities of energy efficient street lighting and signaling have been presented, as well as possible forms of financing and development of such projects.
• In the third part, the focus was put on energy efficient lighting of internal premises, where the possibilities of lighting with modern light fixtures were discussed, as well as the quality of lighting in schools, administrative buildings, living spaces, etc.;
• In the fourth part, at the end of the working day, the possibility of product presentation was given to the manufacturers of light fixtures and equipment, and the participants in the Conference had the opportunity to establish direct contacts with representatives of the companies;

Further information

Further information about the Conference can be found at the internet site: http://efficient-lighting-conference-eng.yolasite.com/

Links to presentations that have been shown during the speeches of the conference are implemented in the Agenda section.

 

Lighting Conference Montenegro2.JPG

Agenda

April 28th 2011, Podgorica, Hotel Crna Gora

Opening

09.30 – 09.45 Address of Welcome by the Minister of Economy, Vladimir Kavarić, PhD, Ministry of Economy

09.45 – 10.00 Welcoming the Participants, Peter Bonin, GIZ, Country Director

General about Lighting

10.00 – 10.20 Subject 1: European Legislation Energy-efficient Lighting - Status and Outlook, Gert Wemmer, PhD, We Lite Lighting Design & Consulting

10.20 – 10.40 Subject 2: Opportunities Energy Efficient Lighting in Montenegro, Milovan Radulović, ScD, Faculty of Electrical Engineering of University of Montenegro

10.40 – 11.00 Subject 3: Experiences from the Region - Software Tools for Development of a Municipal Data Base on Public Lighting, Maja Matejić, GIZ and Slađana Jevremović, munisipality Varvarin

11.00 – 11.30 Coffee Break

Outdoor Lighting

11.30 – 12.00 Subject 4: Public Street Lighting and Traffic Management on LED Basis, Michael Preuss, Swarco Futurit Verkehrs-signalsysteme GmbH

12.00 – 12.30 Subject 5: Efficient Street Lighting With and Without LED, Aleš Filipič, Siteco

12.30 – 13.00 Subject 6: Models for Financing and Operating an Energy Efficient Lighting Infrastructure, Matthias Hessling, PhD, Swarco V.S.M. GmbH

13.00 – 14.00 Lunch Break

Interior Lighting

14.00 – 14.30 Subject 7: Lighting Systems With Highest Energy Efficiency, Rainer Wrenger, OSRAM

14.30 – 15.00 Subject 8: Efficient Lighting in Schools and Offices, Torsten Kiesslich-Köcher, Regiolux

15.00 – 15.30 Subject 9: Better Lighting for Better Living, Gert Wemmer, PhD, We Lite Lighting Design & Consulting

15.30 – 16.00 Coffee Break

Presentation of The Companies/Firms

16.00 – 17.00 Subject 10: Brief Introduction of Producers From the Local and European Lighting Industry with Company and Product Focus (10 min each) (SWARCO, OSRAM, Siteco, Regiolux, Local Manufacturer)

17.00 Closing

Feedback

Experiences from the lighting conference "energy efficient lighting April 28, 2011 Podgorica/Montenegro

Author: Gert Wemmer, we lite lighting design & consulting

General comments

Number of participants (ca. 150) reflects the high interest in energy efficiency topics. There is obviously a need for information on these topics and no overload of information events (in Western Europe it would be difficult to get so many participants for such an event).
Opening through high level officials (minister, deputy minister, mayor...) underlined the importance of such a conference.
All Western European speakers were surprised by the few questions being asked from local participants and we were wondering if this had its origin in the large number of participants or in the local culture. We are in general used to a quite intense discussion on lighting topics. Maybe an opening question by the moderator or experts could initiate a more lively discussion.

Things that went well

• The conference was very well organized, topics well selected and time management was perfect.
• The conference contained a good cross section through lighting applications and sections were well structured (regulatory framework, energy efficiency of road lighting, interior lighting, manufacturers) keeping the level of attention high until the end of the conference. Apparently there were still 60 to 70 participants at the last section "introduction of lighting manufacturers".
• The subjects gave representative overviews and touched also the latest technologies for energy efficient lighting
• The small exhibition in the lobby of the conference room was well attended during the breaks. The "touch and feel" of products is an important component of conferences with a technical focus.

Things that could be improved

Most presentations contained a number of charts which were not legible in the back rows due to small font sizes and some overloaded tables contained too much information. There should be a short notice to all speakers about minimum size of fonts and avoidance of overloaded tables.
Also executing software tools and going through program menus should be avoided in a large audience as this may only be interesting for a minority.
Information for speakers about the conference room and number of participants would be helpful to adopt the presentations according to the conference setting. An additional monitor for the speakers should be installed so that they do not have to turn to the screen and away from the microphone.
All presentations should start just from one central computer with no exceptions allowed. Otherwise the risk of interruptions of the conference flow is quite high (as experienced during the morning session).
Overall the interpreters did a good job although they had difficulties with some technical expressions during translation from Serbian to English (i.e. Siteco presentation where the interpreter said at one point "I really don't know").

Summary

All in all an excellent conference on energy efficient lighting which opens the door for similar events in the future. A continuation of informing about energy efficient lighting could be a local exhibition on energy efficient technologies (larger than the exhibits at this event) combined with a conference part.