New Energy Performance Contracting for local communities in Lombardy

Since 2006, the Italian private grantmaking foundation with bank origin, Cariplo Foundation, has launched various programs in order to support local public administrations in the energy requalification of their building stock and plants, granting the realization of Energy Audits and Sustainable Energy Action Plans, following the European initiative of the Covenant of Mayors.

In early 2014, after the interesting and positive experiences of the first edition of the ELENA initiative in the Province of Milan, the Foundation decided to replicate the facility at a reduced scale in consideration of some difficulties inherent in the ELENA facility itself:

• The impossibility for the majority of the superordinate bodies to participate as coordinators and economic guarantors of the planned investments.
• The difficulty in reaching the minimum investment thresholds due to the small size of the Municipalities.
• The limited diffusion and experience in the Municipalities of third-party trust instruments (Public-Private Partnerships) compatible with the constraints established by the “Stability Pact”.

The first two editions of the call: “100 Efficient and Sustainable Municipalities”, nicknamed “micro-elena”, reported a massive participation of small and medium-sized municipalities with up to 100,000 inhabitants. The results of this initiative, granting up to 90% of the Technical Assistance costs, allowed the energy refurbishment of more than 200 buildings and 60 public lighting systems for € 60 million  of investments and avoiding the emission of almost 10,000 tons / year of CO2.

However, some critical issues still persisted:

• The contribution for Technical Assistance is not excluded from the stability pact.
• The difficulty in entrusting the contracts to consultants for Technical Assistance by the Municipalities.
• The municipal administrations are generally with undersized staff and little motivated.
• The initiative does not allow the “Deep Renovation” of buildings.
• The consultants involved do not aim at innovation, preferring the implementation of traditional Supply. Energy Contracting tenders instead of Energy Performance Contracting (EPC).

For these reasons, the Foundation decided to launch, in 2016, a new program, called “Territori Virtuosi” where, unlike the previous program,  the Technical Assistance provider was selected for the whole programme, steered and paid directly by the Foundation.

The T.A. service provided by the Foundation includes:

• Diagnostic assessment of buildings and public lighting;
• Tender documents drafting and execution of the whole bidding process itself;
• Economic-financial evaluation of the projects;
• Management of relations with credit institutions and for the development of balanced Public-Private Partnerships;
• Design and implementation of monitoring programs;

The Cariplo Foundation is currently managing the first new program “Territori Virtuosi” for implementing EPCs in 19 public bodies (Municipalities + Former Province of Milan, now Metropolitan City), for a total of 300 buildings, mainly schools. The cost of the program is € 1.2 million, borne entirely by the Foundations. Another 500,000 euros are foreseen for the monitoring and reporting phase. Investments in energy efficiency and renewable sources of around € 40 million are expected from this new initiative.

A second call with the same characteristics is in preparation and will be launched by February 2018.

• Contact person: Federico Beffa
• Email: federicobeffa@fondazionecariplo.it

Fuente: FEDARENE
Enlace a la noticia: New Energy Performance Contracting for local communities in Lombardy