The World Energy Council (WEC) ranking positions Slovenia one line higher than last year, which is the 12th place among 125 countries with the AAB assessment between Britain and Spain. The top three ranking winners are Denmark, Sweden and Switzerland.
For several years, the World Energy Council (WEC) has been evaluating the energy sector and the energy policy of countries according to three criteria: the energy security, the justice (of price and of energy infrastructure accessibility for people), and the environmental stability.
Slovenia received the highest assessment in energy security (the second place after Denmark). Its worst indicator relates to the justice (the 25th place), and the lowest indicator is in the energy sector for environmental safety—the 44th place.
However, good trends to improve the environmental standards within the energy sector are noticeable in Slovenia. The core point is the energy law that encourages investment in the renewable energy sources and the energy use efficiency. However, the energy concept defining environmental objectives is still under discussion. To improve the assessment of the environmental safety within the energy sector, Slovenia should allocate additional investments into the efficient energy use. Among the priority measures mentioned by the WEC experts is the insulation of buildings, replacement of windows and old heating systems. It is also necessary to modify the design schemes for the use of renewable energy sources in buildings.
Slovenian Legislation: Energy Security
The WEC statistics focuses on building a network of hydroelectric power plants on the Sava River. This will increase the amount of renewable energy sources. However, the WEC service has still no data about the difficulties hampering the construction of new power plants. Therefore, the WEC experts conclude about the shortcomings in the Slovenian environmental legislation and note the difficulty in obtaining permits to implement infrastructure projects in the energy sector as well as to work with the renewable energy sources. According to the WEC statistics, these factors are the main barriers that do not allow Slovenia to improve its indicators in the ranking.
Nevertheless, the assessment of Slovenia’s energy security is very high. The Eles Company notes that it has also contributed to Slovenia’s acquisition of the high assessment of energy security. In particular, the Eles Company has implemented the Cirkovce–Pince power line project, which affects well the regional energy market, and the Sincro.grid project referring to the field of smart energy networks. The WEC analysts also agree with this.
The Slovenia-Hungary gas pipeline project developed by the Plinovodi Company was also highly assessed.
Source: delo.si
