The MultiHome project aims to create an integrated customer-centered housing renovation service in Plovdiv Region (Bulgaria) by building a mutually beneficial cooperation between all public authorities, businesses, financial institutions involved in renovation and citizens.
The Energy Agency of Plovdiv continues its series of meetings with mayors and experts from the regional administrations within the municipality of Plovdiv. At the beginning of this week, representatives of the agency met with Mr. Emil Rusinov, the mayor of the district “East” within Plovdiv municipality. The held conversations and discussed ideas were in the context of the objectives and priorities for municipalities’ sustainable development, i.e.: reducing energy consumption in the municipal infrastructure, renovating the existing building stock to achieve higher levels of energy efficiency and energy independence, having a cleaner and more attractive urban environment.
On January 15, the municipality of Gabrovo announced the setting-up of the first energy community (EC) in Bulgaria, and on March 15, the first official meeting of the members of EC Gabrovo - Regional Non-Hazardous Waste Landfill was held. A total of 73 participants were recruited: 31 from Gabrovo and the region, and the rest from other country regions. Among the members of EC Gabrovo is the Energy Agency of Plovdiv.
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Energy Agency of Plovdiv launches the service of One-stop-shop for energy renovation of public and private buildings. The event was held with the assistance of the Housing Policy Directorate to the Stamboliyski municipality, and the one-stop service is being implemented within the framework of the Multihome project "Hub and cooperation platform for energy services for accelerated renovation in the Plovdiv region" under the LIFE program of the EC.
under the LIFE program of the EC with the coordinator Energy Agency of Plovdiv and its partners: Municipality of Plovdiv, Plovdiv Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Quadro Synergy and Bulgarian Union of Homeowners’ Associations. The project will last three years, until October 2026. MultiHome will build a model of cooperation between citizens, businesses and municipalities to support the renovation of residential buildings in the Plovdiv Region. Within the framework of the project, a "one-stop shop" will be created to advise the citizens of all the 18 municipalities within the Plovdiv Region on renovating their homes, replacing old heating devices and integrating individual RES installations.
The Energy Agency of Plovdiv provides an innovative service - a one-stop-shop for consultations on EE, RES and energy communities. This is a continuation of the long-term efforts of the Agency to support the Municipality of Plovdiv and their citizens to renovate their homes in energy efficient way.
The MultiHome value proposal in Plovdiv Region
The MultiHome project will support the decarbonized and low-emission integrated renovation of the residential buildings in Plovdiv Region by piloting an integrated home renovation model encompassing strong technical expertise and multi-level cooperation with all market stakeholders (homeowners, renovation businesses, public authorities, and financial institutions) aiming to ease the home renovation process, reduce the complexity and simplify the decision-making process on behalf of the homeowners.
The Energy Agency of Plovdiv, along with the Municipality of Plovdiv and local branch representatives (businesses, industry, housing sector), will design, harmonise and establish a cooperation model with the local stakeholders offering a wide range of administrative, legal, technical, financial, social and networking expertise that will be embedded in a Service Hub and Platform serving as knowledge and capacity hub, renovation advisor and match-maker, and renovation tracker. Thus, the MultiHome Service Hub and Platform will support real-life integrated EE and RES single- and multi-family innovative renovation actions in over 1 700 dwellings and inspire more new pilots to move forward.
The MultiHome project will cooperate with homeowners, renovation businesses, public institutions and financial bodies in dedicated sessions to develop a citizen renovation toolbox, code of quality assurance and professional conduct, “trusted supplier” label, and customer-tailored financial schemes for vulnerable and energy poor households. It will strengthen and promote its cooperation model through interactive live events – marketplace brokerage events, match-making sessions for homeowners and renovation businesses, renovation champions and trusted supplier roadshows. These events will provide opportunities for live networking, high-visibility showcasing of ambitious, advanced and clean energy solutions, and their market acceleration and scale-up.
The project will cooperate with stakeholder advisory groups of homeowners, renovation businesses and local authorities, producing a number of policy documents as well as training materials to strengthen their knowledge and expertise in the domain.
Finally, the MultiHome project will be piloted in the Municipality of Plovdiv as the regional centre and second largest Bulgarian city, but will outreach, expand and upscale through 5 municipalities in the region within the project lifetime and to all 17 municipalities in 5 years after the project. It will propose inter-regional replication to other 2 regions with the ultimate aim to transfer and replicate its model.
The Bulgarian Renovation context
In Bulgaria, the high percentage of co-ownership in the multi-family buildings, their vast surface area, as well as legal, administrative and technical barriers have hindered their energy renovation throughout the years and so the aging residential building stock has become a major contributor to the high final energy consumption (up to 80%) and CO2 and air pollution emissions in the Bulgarian cities.
The Long-term Bulgarian national strategy for renovation of the residential and non-residential building stock till 2050 suggests that the residential buildings will cover the greater share of 85% of the total energy and CO2 savings and renovated area. However, over 90% of the residential buildings have the lowest energy performance (E, F, G) and only 7% are compliant to the contemporary energy efficiency requirements. According to the energy certificates of investigated buildings, only 6% of the buildings can go beyond 60% primary energy savings. From this staring point, immense efforts will be required to achieve the targets set.
The context of Plovdiv Region
Plovdiv Region is the second largest in Bulgaria in terms of territory, building stock and population. It has more than 18 828 residential buildings with over 149 408 dwellings.
Since 2012, despite the 100% state grant for residential renovation , only 128 buildings with over 7 600 dwellings have been renovated, i.e. 0.7% of all residential buildings and 5% of the dwellings724. So, the realisation of the Renovation wave in Plovdiv Region has been very slow and unsatisfactory; at this pace, the regional energy and CO2 and emission targets will not be met.
The MultiHome project aims at establishing a dedicated integrated home renovation service in Plovdiv Region that will improve the market conditions for holistic single- and multi-family building renovation and ease the homeowners’ renovation journey.
The MultiHome objectives are to:
Establish a multi-stakeholder cooperation model for integrated home renovation of single- and multi-family buildings that supports and encourages the joint implementation of ambitious and innovative energy efficiency and RES actions;
Launch a MultiHome Service Hub and Platform encompassing strong technical expertise and professional advice bridging homeowners, renovation businesses, public authorities, and financial institutions;
Accelerate the renovation market through bundling services and technologies along the renovation value chain in “package deals” thus empowering and increasing the trust of the homeowners to make informed decisions for the renovation of their dwellings
Mobilise the stakeholders in novel, socially-responsible and all-inclusive business models based on the homeowners’ own financial commitment or third-party financing
of homeowners, renovation professionals, and local authorities through active public campaigning, incl. brokerage marketplaces, match-making and roadshow events and participatory sessions.
The MultiHome Service Hub and Platform will support over 1 700
dwellings and inspire even more to undertake innovative and integrated
renovation actions.
Through its support for the homeowners, the project
will reach 30.7 GWh/y primary and 11.8 GWh/y final energy savings, 6 200 t CO2 savings,
and total RES generation of 2.1 GWh/y.
will become self-sustaining and span beyond the project lifetime providing consultations and services for the homeowners in all 18 municipalities of Plovdi Region.
will continue its active operation ensuring that the building- and homeowners have a reliable source of information on holistic building renovation encompassing both energy and RES actions, match-making between homeowners and providers, and tracking real-life renovation projects happening in the community.
along with all capacity building and training materials will be available in the public domain.
with homeowners, renovation businesses and local authorities will stay after its end to ensure the consistency and coherence of the renovation cooperation model.
and supporting policy recommendations will be an essential tool for the public authorities in the region and on national level to ensure the implementation and sustainability of their efforts to increase the energy efficiency and share of RES in the residential sector by 2030 and 2050 and align them with the EU and national ambitions in the sector.
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The MultiHome Consortium brings together 5 Bulgarian partners with knowledge and expertise in the residential renovation domain. It is a balanced mix of energy agencies, local authorities, branch organisations:
MultiHome project partner
Plovdiv Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI)
is the leading Plovdiv branch organisation covering the demands of the businesses in Plovdiv region. It will coordinate the market uptake and activation and support business-related activities due to its vast expertise, long-lasting experience and established partnerships with local businesses, incl. renovation and construction companies, energy service and technology providers, architects and engineers, installers, etc. It will focus on the business cooperation, communication with the renovation market actors, building capacities and trainings for professionals.
MultiHome project partner
Union of Homeowners’ Associations (CAC)
is a key national organisation dedicated to promoting inclusive, climate-neutral housing and supporting the efforts of homeowners and other key actors to achieve a high-quality living environment. CAC will represent the homeowners’ perspective and will lead the homeowners’ engagement, participation and empowerment. Together with the Municipality of Plovdiv, CAC will work to conduct homeowners’ survey and Lead User sessions and play crucial role in the development of the Citizen Renovation Toolbox.
MultiHome project coordinator
Energy Agency of Plovdiv (EAP)
is the project coordinator and has technical and expert capacity to lead and coordinate renovation actions. It has numerous involvements in similar projects in FP7, IEE, Interreg, Horizon 2020, etc. EAP’s major role is of technical experts on home renovation (incl. NZEB, PassivHaus standard, etc.), energy efficiency actions, RES and storage deployment, heating replacement, energy auditing and certification, validating energy and CO2 emission savings, etc. EAP will lead the establishment of the MultiHome Service Hub and Platform and will cooperate with the other partners on the involvement of homeowners, development of novel value chains and business models, policy dialogue and renovation campaigning.
MultiHome project partner
Municipality of Plovdiv (PLV)
is the second largest Bulgarian city, centre of Plovdiv Region and South-Central Region, and the leading pilot municipality in the MultiHome project. It is a beneficiary of the National Renovation Programme and will run activities related to citizen engagement and renovation campaigning. It will engage with local and regional authorities to transfer its knowledge and capacity thus building sustainability, exploitation and scale-up. It will lead the policies for improved governance and mediation and the development of the Regional Renovation Roadmap 2050 for accelerated energy renovation in Plovdiv Region.
MultiHome project partner
Quadro Synergy (SYN)
is a leading Bulgarian consultancy company specialized in business development and investment projects for SMEs and large enterprises, business modelling and business plans, strategic planning and regional development. As such, SYN will work on the sustainability, replication and exploitation of MultiHome and will lead its business development and marketing. It will promote the project across the EU and ensure its trans-national and cross-border collaboration, transfer of new and advanced services and technologies and know-how.
One-stop-shop
One-stop-shop for energy efficiency, renewable energy and energy communities for the Plovdiv Region
The Energy Agency of Plovdiv provides an innovative service - a one-stop-shop for consultations on EE, RES and energy communities. This is a continuation of the long-term efforts of the Agency to support the Municipality of Plovdiv and their citizens to renovate their homes in energy efficient way.
The aim of the one-stop service is to provide administrative, technical, legal and financial consulting about energy renovation of public and private buildings, information on the replacement of old and inefficient heating systems with modern and more efficient appliances and advice on the implementation of RES and energy storage technologies in buildings.
The service is intended to assist municipalities, residential and small non-residential customers and users. It includes consultation and advice in a physical office and online i. e. recommending energy saving measures and technologies, providing a list of trusted suppliers, as well as guidance on how financing can be obtained.
One-stop-shop offers:
information for citizens about possibilities of applying for grants, loans or other forms of financing, for appropriate and innovative EE measures, including:
