Having being invited from Carsten Petersdorff of Navigant to partecipate as an expert to the steering committee on district heating to the European Commission, I have attended a very interested survey. Below I report my contribution to it.
What criteria need to be fulfilled to make you call a project, or programme a “best practice case”?
Human/behaviour/societal
A best practice case should be able to make a measurable improvement on the behavior of the end-users, from 5 to 10% ( or even beyond) of energy savings attributable to them. It should also be able to manage realistically expectations of main stakeholders, fostering their participation to at least a level just above the critical mass identified as feasible for the project. Early-participation involvement of main stakeholders and end-users by means of a well-established communication strategy should help to overcome any bad habits or disinterests shown by potential stakeholders before the launch of the project/programme. It should provide a measurable improvement on the behavior of the end-users, from 5 to 10% ( or even beyond) of energy savings. Early-participation involvement of main stakeholders and end-users by means of a well-established communication strategy should help to overcome any bad habits or disinterests shown by potential stakeholders
Technical
On the technical side a best practice case should be able to achieve/aim to the highest rates of efficiency and performance shown for that specific market segment, while it will be based upon reliable and commercially viable technologies and proven operational arrangements. Rather than unreliable first-of-a-kind technologies it should be focused on innovative evaluation tools to assess the risks associated with new contractual, procurement, and monitoring schemes in order to identified the Best Available Solution rather than the BAT. In deed, mere specification of high-efficiency equipment is increasingly recognized as an inadequate solution. Systems and equipment frequently perform less efficiently than predicted due to sub-optimal integration of subsystems and components, improper installation, poor maintenance, and limited ability to diagnose performance issues.
Economic/market
Commercially viable technology, able to get involved SME from the local, regional market, mobilising private investments on public assets by means of public-private partnership arrangements. Although significant improvement in the latest years, the market still seems to be not mature and sensitive enough to push designers towards energy efficient solutions for existing buildings and district heating.
End-users, in particular, mainly perceived higher risk related to unfamiliar design solutions and techniques, and a correlated lack of performance information. Also Owner do frequently not correspond with end users in residential or non- residential buildings and may have different objectives and consequently perspectives, while end-users are the main beneficiaries of energy savings. A best practice case should take into account these aspects. Furthermore, it should provide an effective and repeatable path to et involved the small building design firms at local level, mainly working in the retrofit of existing buildings, which could hinder the development of energy efficiency projects because of their complexity. ESCos, that typically overcame the luck of cooperation between the parties involved in the design, construction and operation, are typically more interested in the energy plants rather than the envelope of the buildings. Among real market failures, the problem of principal-agent is widespread: the builder (the agent) takes decisions on the energy efficiency level of a building, while the occupant in the building (the principal) is the one actually paying the energy bill. The incomplete information of the occupant about the energy efficiency of the building does not foster the builder to invest in energy efficiency technologies according to social optimum. Also Owner do frequently not correspond with end users in residential or non- residential buildings and may have different objectives and consequently perspectives, while end -users are the main beneficiaries of energy savings. It’s been observed that low cooperation with other stakeholder in the design team particularly influences in a negative way the adoption energy efficiency measures because of the typical way of carrying out design projects is a sequence of separate segments rather than in an integrated process. This barrier leads to prefer financial and time-effectiveness criteria over environmental ones during design process. Therefore, the adoption of EE measures could be empowered by fully exploiting the great potential in multi-disciplinary work, bringing together designers and supply chain and others functions responsible for building design
Legal/policy
A best practice case should be able to demonstrate how projects can be supported by ad-hoc policies. A valuable example could be incentive measures to retrofit existing buildings, especially considering that the majority of private operator are small firm mainly work locally on retrofit of existing buildings.
Additionally, it should take into consideration how public policies can support the spreading of valuable and verifiable information to citizens and consumers, in order to reduce the uncertainty towards eco-friendly solutions.
Moreover, policy makers have to support ESCos and local Government through documents that provide practical information to design and procure without the need for further interpretation of legislative requirements.
Other aspects
Governmental and local authorities as owners and developers can affect positively the adoption of energy efficiency measure and push related building market. An energy efficiency governance with a multi-level perspective contributes to the success of energy efficiency policy efforts.
In particular, a multi-level approach in energy efficiency governance is fundamental to develop energy efficiency in buildings because of the complexity of the building and construction sector and its high energy efficiency potential.
A governance system consists of two components: resources and structures for governance and governance activities. The former ones can be identified as institutional structures, human and financial resources, human capacity and training, and political support/mandate. The latter ones are represented by actions associated to the governance system such as: energy efficiency strategies, policy development processes, funding mechanisms, monitoring programmes, compliance and enforcement, and R&D activities. This framework needs a multi-level governance (Bulkeley and Betsill, 2005; Smith, 2007) in order to develop an effective energy efficiency governance.
Local authorities can assume several roles in order to support energy efficiency in the building and construction sector. In particular, they can be market initiators, buyers, borrowers and implementers for energy efficiency measures in buildings.
A best practice case should show how energy efficiency governance at local level can contribute positively, outlining the effective path undertaken by the municipality in order to integrate increasing energy and environmental awareness and technical know-how and expertise.
Summing up! A best practice case:
- It should provide a measurable improvement on the behavior of end-users. Early communication strategy helps to overcome any bad habits or disinterests by potential stakeholders
- It should aim to the highest performance, and be based upon reliable and commercially viable technologies and proven O&M. it should rather be focused on innovative evaluation tools to assess risks associated with projects to identified the Best Available Solution rather than BAT
- It should showcase an effective and repeatable path to get involved ESCOs in a more holistic approach to the retrofit of existing buildings. not only energy plants, but envelope of the buildings
- It should demonstrate how projects can be supported by ad-hoc policies taking in consideration how reduce the uncertainty towards eco-friendly solutions
- it should outline the effective path undertaken by the municipality in order to integrate increasing energy and environmental awareness and technical know-how and expertise
Could you recommend, and clearly name, a real case study (energy renovation, district heating, financing, technical assistance) that you would call a “best practice case” and that should be known across the EU?
GEN-IUS, Genoa – Innovative Urban Sustainability, is an upstream PPP project supported by the EIB’s ELENA facility, designed to deliver about €40 ml energy efficiency projects and services under long-term contracts with ESCos. It is a best practice because is able:
- to get involved a vast number of stakeholders/owners, among 32 municipalities and their public companies while provide an extensive communication plan to other stakeholders, citizens and investors;
- to implement an innovative public procurement process, based on an EPC, reaching the critical mass for ESCos to invest either on energy plants than building envelopes and district heating;
- to overcame economical/markets barriers by contracting ESCos and procuring third-party finance;
- to demonstrate policies effectiveness, since it is supported by EU grants;
- to set a clear path of governance for the municipalities involved in order to integrate increasing energy/environmental awareness and technical know-how/expertise.
As a Head of Energy Management Department of the Municipality of Genoa, I was appointed Project Coordinator of GEN-IUS, acting as referral point between the EIB, the Municipality of Genoa and the other Stakeholders. I was also responsible for the preparation and the submission of the successful Application Form to EIB, including the requirements and the procedures for securing the EU grants to support the development costs of GEN-IUS.
ECDC Consulting 