Best Policy Practices
Best Policy Practices
Best Policy Practices
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<strong>Best</strong> <strong>Policy</strong> <strong>Practices</strong><br />
ESCO – Energy Service Company<br />
European Union<br />
The cheapest energy is Negawatts.<br />
How does one buy savings in energy?<br />
Name of the programme: European Platform for the Promotion of Energy<br />
Performance Contracting - EUROCONTRACT<br />
Lead institution: Berliner Energieagentur<br />
Other institutions and stakeholders involved: 11 partners from 9 countries.<br />
Market actors: financial institutions, ESCOs, building owners. The project<br />
receives support under the “Intelligent Energy – Europe” programme of the<br />
European Community.<br />
Status: Ongoing.<br />
<strong>Policy</strong> and main objectives: Energy consumption in Europe<br />
is 20% higher than economically feasible and around 40%<br />
higher than technically possible. The building sector is a major<br />
player and offers a large potential for saving energy. Energy<br />
performance contracting (EPC) has proven its viability to tap<br />
private capital for cost effective improvements, and for energy<br />
and cost savings in the building sector.<br />
EUROCONTRACT is a coordinating network among<br />
relevant market actors and experts on EPC. It develops<br />
standards for EPC projects. Funded by the European Union’s<br />
Intelligent Energy Europe programme, EUROCONTRACT<br />
directly involves building owners, energy service companies,<br />
and financial institutions.<br />
EUROCONTRACT is led by Berliner Energieagentur and<br />
consists of 11 partners from 9 countries. The main objective<br />
of EUROCONTRACT is to contribute substantially to market<br />
development for energy services in Europe by further developing<br />
and promoting the model of energy performance contracting.<br />
For an EPC project, an Energy Service Company (ESCO)<br />
provides its know-how for energy-saving measures in buildings<br />
and guarantees a certain level of savings, based on an<br />
energy cost /consumption baseline. The ESCO takes on the<br />
performance risk to ensure that adequate measures are implemented<br />
and that the stipulated energy savings are achieved.<br />
The investment is refinanced through the savings. The choice<br />
of the ESCO is based on a (preferably EU-wide) public<br />
tender. The tender – through performance-based specifica-<br />
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