Utility Management Training is the latest word in Danube Learning Partnership capacity building efforts: A two-year curriculum that provides mid-career professionals with a holistic view of all aspects of future-orientated utility management. The class of 2021 gathered last week for insights into energy-efficient utility operations.

Building on proven D-LeaP programs and collaborating with leading utilities in Central and Eastern Europe, the Utility Management Training aims to equip current and future water-sector managers with tools and techniques to support their decision-making.

Eight training modules over two years cover the major processes and functions in a water utility. The first course of this program started in 2021, and from 16 May to 20 May, its Energy Management and Energy Efficiency training module, the fifth out of eight, took place in Tirana and Korce, Albania.

15 participants were present in person in this hybrid event. UMT competence partner Econoler provided South African Albert Williams as core trainer. He guided the participants through a packed schedule that included general energy management and energy efficiency basics, technical aspects of pump systems, data collection, measurement methods and software, AI applications in energy optimization, an energy efficiency business case, a practical measurement exercise at the Fushe Kruja pumping station and a site visit at the Korce Water Utility with its solar energy plant.

Competence partners Siemens and Grid Metrics and Sofia University as the academic partner of the UMT contributed guest speakers.

With this module the first Utility Management Training Course has passed the halftime mark, an achievement that has been won by organizers, trainers and participants in what has been a bit of an uphill fight in a Covid-19 affected environment.

All the more valuable is the success, and, as one participant remarked, “the knowledge we gain in the UMT is worth every effort”.