2nd edition of EPC COC Newsletter released

2019. 4. 23.

The Newsletter focuses on the Energy Service Market in EU Member States. In February, experts from eu.esco, EFIEES and EU-ASE, together with a delegation of National  EPC CoC Administrators, met in Brussels with representatives of the European Investment Bank and the European Commission to discuss current developments, opportunities and challenges for Energy Performance Contracts.

 

On this meeting, the Commission started highlighting the huge investment gap for energy efficiency investment, listing some of the actions identified to address these issues: monitoring the implementation of relevant policy frameworks, supporting investment flows (e.g. through the SFSB or ELENA initiatives), raising awareness at Member State level (e.g. through SEIF).
 
The EIB described the situation at Member State level, one year after the new Eurostat rules and the publication of the guide:
  • “Maastricht neutral” contract models were developed (Belgium, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Scotland) or are in development (Austria, Czech Republic, Ireland, Poland)
  • Several barriers to EPCs are still in place in some MS: in France they are always on-balance sheets, in Germany there are different policies based on the region, in Latvia public authorities cannot sign long-term service contracts (longer than 3y)
  • More general barriers at EU level are still present: lack of information and awareness, lack of trust, complexity of procurement process, access to finance for EPC providers, low energy prices…
Based on this situation, the European Investment Bank described some of the activities that it is currently putting in place in order to promote EPCs:
  • Raising awareness about the benefits of EPCs and their financing (e.g. by talking directly to relevant public authorities in Member States)
  • Providing technical assistance for EPC projects (e.g. support for preparing model contracts, market demand analysis, capacity building for financial institutions, project development assistance…)
  • Supporting financing of EPC projects, via lending to banks to on-lend to ESCOs (e.g. PF4EE) or via dedicated financial instruments or investment platforms using resources from ESIF and EFSI

The EIB stressed the importance of EU funds: as they are not considered as government financing by the Guide, national governments could set up a guarantee instrument that covers up to 49% of the investment, backed by EU funds, and this will not be counted as debt.

The EIB is currently looking into developing a platform to ensure the proper combination of structural funds and energy efficiency investments in the form of EPCs. 

Please find moe details in the attached Newsletter.