Energy service collaborations—it is a question of trust

Backlund, Sandra; Eidenskog, Maria

doi:10.1007/s12053-012-9189-z

Cited by 29 publications

(27 citation statements)

References 13 publications

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“…Also, as stated by Sorrell, there is little evidence that measures such as model contracts and standardized M&V-schemes actually are able to reduce transaction costs [18]. Instead, we suggest in line with Backlund and Eidenskog [10], that ESCO-contracting is basically a matter of trust between the client and the contractor, and that long-term ESCO-contracts are likely to increase this trust. Therefore municipalities should be aware of the importance of a good collaboration spirit with the ESCO-provider in preparing tendering and choosing ESCO-provider.…”

Section: Political Initiativessupporting

confidence: 46%

“…Here it is necessary to see the ESCO-project as a partnership, instead of an outsourcing. As argued in [10], in-house competences and ESCOs should not be seen as contradictions, but as two concepts reinforcing each other. Municipalities involved in ESCO-contracting are generally aware of internal capacity building as a central part of the project, both in the short term and in the long term.…”

Section: Not Integrated Effortsmentioning

confidence: 96%

“…Complex contracts also increase the asymmetry between the contractor and the client, for instance for the client to argue whether claims from the ESCO-supplier on reduced performances are due to external factors [16]. An example of such an asymmetry between the client and the contractor is well described by Backlund and Eidenskog [10]. In the Danish ESCO-contracts, the ESCO-provider delivers the model for the M&V-procedure, as no standard for M&V exists, meaning that there is a risk of the negotiations on baseline-corrections being asymmetric in favor of the ESCO-provider.…”

Section: Transaction Costsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Besides assessing ESCO-contracting on the amount of energy saved, we suggest that ESCO-contracting could also become a learning process for municipalities, enabling and encourage public administrations to work in with public-private and public-public partnerships on energy savings. Other researchers have focused on the "soft" sides of ESCO-contracting, pointing to the collaboration between the in-house staff and the ESCO-provider [9], as well as partnerships and trust between the two parties as central issues for successful ESCO-contracting [10]. Our focus is the motivation and the conceptualization of the ESCO projects, and to what extent the partnerships lead to innovation in the municipality FM organization.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Greening Public Buildings: ESCO-Contracting in Danish Municipalities

Jensen¹,

Nielsen

Hansen³

2013

Energies

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This paper presents current research on Danish municipalities' use of Energy Service Companies (ESCO) as a way to improve the standard of public buildings and to increase energy efficiency. In recent years more and more municipalities have used ESCO-contracts to retrofit existing public buildings, and to make them more energy efficient. At the moment 30 municipalities (of the 98 municipalities in Denmark) are involved in, or preparing, ESCO contracts. Nevertheless, ESCO-contracting still faces many challenges on the Danish market, as there is a widespread skepticism towards the concept amongst many stakeholders. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the various experience gained so far by municipalities use of ESCO-contracting, the different approached to ESCO-contracting being used in practice, as well as the different viewpoints drivers and barriers behind the development. The strong growth in ESCO-contracts reflects that the ESCO-concept fits well with a number of present problems that municipalities are facing, as well as a flexible adaptation to the local context in different municipalities.

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Section: Political Initiativessupporting

confidence: 46%

Section: Not Integrated Effortsmentioning

confidence: 96%

Section: Transaction Costsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Greening Public Buildings: ESCO-Contracting in Danish Municipalities

Jensen¹,

Nielsen

Hansen³

2013

Energies

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“…There are numerous case studies available which sum up the projects' technical and financial characteristics, such as the obtained level of energy savings, 8 and market surveys also address the demand side (EEFIG 2015). However, though there are exceptions (Jensen et al 2013;Rye Petersen 2010;Backlund and Eidenskog 2013;Aasen et al 2016), there are few academic studies on how EPC is perceived and practised on the user side. Such endeavours seem required for understanding the demand side of EPC, as illustrated in the introductory story from France on how and why performance contracting was initiated.…”

Section: Main Focus On the Supply Sidementioning

confidence: 99%

Energy performance contracting (EPC): a suitable mechanism for achieving energy savings in housing cooperatives? Results from a Norwegian pilot project

Winther¹,

Gurigard²

2016

Energy Efficiency

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The barriers to energy savings in institutions and private homes are well known and include people's lack of interest, awareness, knowledge and human and financial capacity. Experiences made in several countries show that EPC-energy performance contracting-may be used for overcoming many of these barriers. A typical EPC project is delivered by an energy service company (ESCO) and the contract is accompanied with a guarantee for energy savings. EPC is increasingly taken in use in the professional market (firms and the public sector), but is less common in the residential sector market. It has been suggested that there are several barriers for using EPC in the domestic sector such as the uncertainty involved in estimating forthcoming reductions in private consumption. In this paper, we present the results from a pilot project on the use of EPC in a housing cooperative in Oslo. The project was initiated and observed by the researchers. The research followed a transdisciplinary methodology in that it was conducted by both researcher and practitioner (co-authors) in close collaboration with members of the housing cooperative and the ESCOs, who also contributed to the interpretation of results. We document the process in terms of why the Board decided to join the EPC pilot, the call for offers from ESCOs who guaranteed that purchased annual energy would be reduced by one third, the responses to and negotiations of the offer from the ESCO who became contracted in the initial phase and up to the moment when the General Assembly finally decided to not invest in the proposed energy saving measures. We find that the residents not only had limited interest in energy savings but also lacked confidence in the EPC process. This contributed to the outcome. We discuss the findings in relation to the barriers to using EPC among housing cooperatives. We highlight the need for more knowledge about the client side for understanding how barriers may be overcome. Three specific recommendations for how EPC may successfully be employed among housing cooperatives are suggested as follows: (i) include refurbishment and not only energy savings in the EPC, (ii) identify the residents' needs in an early phase and (iii) communicate the EPC principle to the residents throughout the process.

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Advancing transformative sustainability: A comparative analysis of electricity service and supply innovators in the United States

Taminiau

Banks

Bleviss

et al. 2019

WIREs Energy & Environment

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The electricity sector is undergoing rapid and dramatic change. The momentum of sustainable energy technologies and business model innovation is giving rise to a "polycentric" framework of policy innovation and action organized by institutions that support customer choice and give customers the means to become electricity generators and service providers in their own right. These local experiments will have to deliver transformative change, flexibly address the electricity sector's legacy of political and administrative complexity, achieve scale and financial sustainability, and enable greater and wider stakeholder participation and choice. This article reviews the evidence to date of the importance of these experiments and examines three innovators-municipal utilities, community choice aggregators, and the sustainable energy utility-to gauge the capacity of pioneers to address climate-driven and other challenges in the electricity market.

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Energy service collaborations—it is a question of trust

Cited by 29 publications

References 13 publications

Greening Public Buildings: ESCO-Contracting in Danish Municipalities

Greening Public Buildings: ESCO-Contracting in Danish Municipalities

Energy performance contracting (EPC): a suitable mechanism for achieving energy savings in housing cooperatives? Results from a Norwegian pilot project

Advancing transformative sustainability: A comparative analysis of electricity service and supply innovators in the United States

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