Berlin Energy Saving Partnerships
The Federal state of Berlin in partnership with Berlin Energy Agency (BEA) has initiated in 1996 the “Energy Savings Partnerships” for improving energy efficiency in public buildings in Berlin. They project manage the retrofit of public and private buildings, preparing tenders for works that will guarantee reductions in energy consumptions of an average of 26% based on Energy Performance Contracting (EPC) with the private ESCO sector (Energy Services Companies). In this program, BEA acts as project marketer, aggregator and facilitator, as well as financial advisor for the beneficiaries of the program (federal and local authorities).
So far 1.400 buildings have been upgraded or retrofitted, delivering CO2 reductions of more than 70,000 tonnes per year.
As the programme is based on EPC with guaranteed savings and as the majority of these energy retrofits investment are being reimbursed to the ESCO from the majority of the energy savings there is no additional cost for the property owner.
The retrofit comes at no additional cost to the property owner as the idea is that the majority of the guaranteed energy savings is being used to the reimbursement of the investment to the ESCO, and that a small portion of the energy savings is being kept by the property owners as immediate savings on their energy bills.