How to kick start a market for EPC Lessons learned from a mix of measures in Sweden

Anna Forsberg, Carlos Lopes, and Egil Öfverholm, Swedish Energy Agency, Sweden

Keywords

Energy Performance Contracting, EPC, energy services, ESCO

Abstract

In less than five years Energy Performance Contracting has conquered at least 5 % (<4 million m2 of ~80 million m2) of the public building stock in Sweden and the number of contracts is rapidly increasing. The paper analyses the strategy that has led to this dynamic development.

Attempts to create a market for energy services have been made in Sweden in the 1980’s and in the early 1990’s. In both cases the expectations were not met. In the third – and current – phase, the market has expanded considerably and is now the fourth biggest in the EU. This development is due to the adoption of a portfolio of flexible measures. These include: a “Forum for Energy Services” with stakeholders, market research studies, information and training activities using a network of multipliers based on regional energy agencies and on public building owners associations, implementation of pilot projects, EU-IEE and IEA projects and studies, subsidies for energy efficiency investments in public buildings, and evaluation studies.

The interaction between these measures - from identification of market needs to actual contracts and follow-up - is examined based on the results from evaluation studies. Factors of success are identified that allow the replication in other markets, for example where there is a high energy efficiency potential and limited access to public funding.

The purpose of this paper is to highlight the importance of having two key factors that have enabled the growth of a sustainable market for EPC as practised during the latest years in Sweden. These factors are (1) a set of activities that cover many aspects from literature studies to pilot projects and their dissemination and (2) a strong coordination between the various activities.