Energy saving opportunitites have been assessed on the drinking water network of the Novi Sad Water Utility Company (Vodovod i kanalizacija Novi Sad, ViKNS) and analysed to see if they are economically viable, that is, if benefits (in the form of saved energy, reduced maintenance costs) exceed costs (most importantly, the cost of investment into energy saving measures).

The work required a combination of engineering and economic expertise. The project team developed and calibrated a hydraulic model, identified energy saving measures, simulated those scenarios via the hydraulic model to determine how much electricity would be saved during different hours of the day. The project experts then analysed the Serbian electricity market to determine the future value of electricity, this way enabling the quantification of the value of saved energy. The carbon footprint of the scenarios was also assessed. The various cost and benefit items of the energy saving scenarios have been compiled in a cost-benefit analysis.

The project was co-financed by the Western Balkans Green Center of the Government of Hungary (www.wbgc.hu) and executed through the close cooperation of three organisations:

• ViKNS as the project beneficiary (https://www.vikns.rs/)
• REKK providing expertise in energy markets and economics (https://rekk.hu/)
• and DHI Hungary with water expertise via hydraulic model building and performance analyses of hydraulic system oper-ation (https://worldwide.dhigroup.com/hu/)

We held the following workshop relating to the project.

The results of the analysis are available in 6 languages.