European Cooperation regarding energy-performance contracting
EU-Project “EnPC-INTRANS” started successfully in nine countries
Extensive increase of capacity for performance contracting planned on municipal level Energy Performance Contracting (EPC) is an essential instrument for the efficient use of energy in municipal buildings and provides a solution to the challenge municipalities are facing: how to retrofit buildings when budgets are too scarce. This efficient instrument must achieve a more widespread application in the eastern part of the European Markets in Transition. This is an objective of “EnPC-Intrans”-project, which has been operational since March 2015.
“EnPC-INTRANS” means „Capacity Building on Energy Performance Contracting in European Markets in Transition“. The aim of the project is to increase the market acceptance of performance contracting in the participating countries and to enhance capacity building on the supply side, as well as to support the creation of demand. The EU supports the EnPC-INTRANS project with almost 2 Mio. Euro for two years, during which energy-savings of about 60 gigawatthours/year should be achieved. The partners are currently evaluating best practice examples and existing business models.
Project participants are the German Society for International Cooperation (GIZ) and the KEA Climate Protection and Energy Agency of Baden-Württemberg GmbH, as well as the European competence centers for energy-performance-contracting in the Republic of Croatia (Energy Institute Hrvoje Pozar), Greece (Centre for Renewable Energy Sources and Saving) and Slovenia (Energy Agenca of Savinjska, Saleska and Koroska Region). In addition there is the competence center of E-Learning in Slovakia (e-code) as well as the key actors for the promotion of contracting at a local level in Latvia (Zemgale Regional Energy Agency), Serbia (Standing Conference of Towns and Municipalities), Romania (Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Agency Ploiesti-Prahova) and of the Ukraine (Finance & Technology).
The project primarily aims at the qualification of public actors, ESCOs and project developers, as well as the promotion of energy-contracting and is focusing on an intensive exchange of experience and know-how between the partners. It also adresses national and regional political policymakers such as ministries and national technical facilities and local decision-makers such as mayors council members and other local actors.
Furthermore, an awareness can be created among the potential providers of contracting and the project controllers.
The project results obtained through these measures in the European market for energyperformance-contracting will be continuously monitored and evaluated. At least 50 highly qualified trainers and 3.000 well-trained specialists will benefit directly from the project while ensuring the successful initiation and implementation in the partner countries and beyond in EU-countries.
The multinational character of the project is based on a multi-level procedure. It will commence with an analysis of best-practice-examples of energy-performance-contracting projects on a European level, and, for the national framework in the nine partner-countries.
Finally, the business models for energy-performance-contracting will be discussed on a national level with the actors on the supply and the demand side. Based on their experiences, the partners will develop training concepts and tools, and selected multipliers from the different groups will be trained. Furthermore a roadshow is planned for the partner countries as well as an intensive public-relations and networking effort on European level. The results of the project will be disseminated in presentations to experts and stakeholders in all 28 EU-Member-States at the end of the project.
EnPC-INTRANS receives funding from the Horizon 2020 European Union Research and Innovation Program under Grant Agreement No 649639.
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What does Energy-Performance-Contracting (EPC) mean?
Energy-Performance-Contracting is an efficient instrument for the refurbishment of public buildings despite of scare municipal budgets. ESCOs finance the refurbishment measures and guarantee long-term energy savings. All costs are refinanced by the energy savings over a fixed period of time. By EPC public entities receive efficient technical devices in their buildings and profit from the ESCOs’ regular support. All financial risks are carried by the ESCO: the investment risk, the operation risk of the technical equipment and the energy saving risk. Experiences show, that energy saving goals will often be achieved or outperformed.