The City of Plovdiv is the second largest city in Bulgaria, with population over 376,000. Plovdiv developed as an industrial centre, but today it is also a business, cultural and historical site. The city has a central heating network based on CHP and natural gas. Unfortunately, due to the constantly increasing prices of the energy, the users have been quitting the centralised network and are adopting individual means of heating and cooling – mostly air conditioning, electrical heaters and ventilation, and even wood and coal. The final energy consumption of Plovdiv is around 2.2 TWh/year from which 59% is due to the residential sector and 35% to the industry sector. CO2 emissions are around 1,055,900 t CO2/year from which 66% are due to the residential sector.

1. To establish a Bold Energy City Vision for its smart and sustainable energy transition to RES in the H&C according to a participative approach to foster the dialogue between local energy market actors and stakeholders to improve their cooperation for concrete actions implementation.
2. To support decentralised small-scale H&C alternatives and prosuming scenarios based on cooperative approaches and citizen-led initiatives in the city of Plovdiv and its surrounding settlements.
3. To etablish one-stop-shops for renovation and heating services to mobilise and empower the citizens to undertake bold energy actions to improve their energy efficiency and independence.