Over 6,000 vulnerable families across the country will benefit from vouchers for household appliances this autumn. A program in this regard was launched by the National Center for Sustainable Energy, with the support of the Ministry of Energy. Thus, with the help of vouchers, beneficiaries will receive new appliances in exchange for old ones at the specialized stores, IPN reports.
“The beneficiary will have to demonstrate, to come with that old, poorly performing equipment to exchange it. This equipment can be recycled properly. We do not want, with this program, to fill all the garbage dumps in the country with old equipment,” said the Minister of Energy.
Victor Parlicov noted that the aim of the project is to help people from vulnerable categories to reduce energy consumption. According to the minister, the program comes to solve one of the fundamental problems, related to energy poverty. “In the long term, the program will contribute to increasing economic security, making energy consumption more efficient and reducing energy poverty by diminishing the population’s costs for bills,” said Victor Parlicov.
A voucher has the value of 7,000 lei each and covers 70 percent of the cost of the selected appliances. The main condition is that the beneficiaries bring their old appliances for being exchanged. They will be notified in the next period by SMS that they are among those eligible. The list of selected potential beneficiaries includes families with many children or with disabled or elderly people.
National Center for Sustainable Energy head Ion Muntean announced that the first three vouchers, offered by the Government, have already been redeemed.
“The information about the beneficiaries reached the partner stores within the program. Operators can easily check if the beneficiary has a voucher. He must pay the difference in price. One of the conditions is that the old, returned appliances must be fully assembled, not necessarily functional. There is the option for the beneficiaries to bring the old appliances to the store themselves, and, after choosing the appliances, the store will ensure the delivery,” said Ion Muntean.
The program for the current winter season will last until November 20 and its total value amounts to 450 million lei for three years of implementation. The authorities aim to recover the investments through reduced energy consumption during seven years.
The program is implemented by the National Center for Sustainable Energy (NCSE) with the support of the Ministry of Energy, with funding from the state budget, and is also financially supported by the Government of Norway. The project is part of the pilot program “Rabla for household appliances”, carried out by UNDP in partnership with NCSE and funded by the European Union, with a total budget of about US$5.8 million. So far, over 39,000 vouchers have been redeemed by families who had the opportunity to replace incandescent bulbs with LEDs and purchase new, energy-efficient appliances.
