Presenting the partners: Albena
By Mari Kristine Buckholm, Smart Innovation Norway 2. August 2017
Albena Resort in Bulgaria attracts more than 200.000 visitors every year, and aims to build a sustaining product that incorporates tourist services, agriculture and renewable energy.
The sea resort of Albena is situated on the Black Sea Coast, 25 km from the Bulgarian city Varna, and consists of 42 hotels, over 100 restaurants and bars, and more.
Albena is an integrated brand, incorporating hotel facilities, auxiliary services, agriculture and renewable energy with strong synergy effects and focus on sustainable growth.
Dimitar Stanev. ALBENA
“We offer summer holidays to tourists from all around Europe. All the hotels, the infrastructure around the hotels, as well as the energy and water infrastructure is owned by us, so we can make optimizations without the necessity to ask a number of authorities or neighbours” explains Dimitar Stanev, Deputy Director of Business Development at Albena and project coordinator for INVADE.
Innovative resort
For the last 45 years, Albena has developed a company in the spirit of innovations, high-quality services and strong fundamentals, successfully fulfilling the customers’ requirements and building shareholders’ value.
“The quality control is an important part of the everyday work of the hotelier. We do it very efficiently”, says Stanev.
He reveals that the company’s goal is to build a sustaining product that incorporates tourist services, agriculture and renewable energy.
More renewable energy
“Albena is a part of the INVADE project because we would like to increase the share of renewable energy in our energy mix. In some cases, the volatility of renewable generation increases the imbalances in the electrical consumption, which leads to penalties by the energy supplier and thus increases the energy costs.”, Stanev points out.
Until now, Albena has only invested in solar thermal stations, which contributes to cost savings.
“In the near future, we would like to invest more in PV systems. Hence, within INVADE, we want to demonstrate an efficient integration of the PV systems to the energy grid of a large consumer like ourselves”, says the Deputy Director.
Albena’s role in INVADE
Albena is the pilot site in Bulgaria and is responsible for the pilot implementation here (task 10.5). Other tasks include implementation and exploitation of the storage concept, providing an operating field, and providing and maintaining a remote platform for other project participants.
“We are familiar with the energy legislation in Bulgaria and our knowledge will be useful in implementing the pilot. Also, we are familiar with our energy usage, and thus, we can do optimization proposals”, explains Stanev.
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