SPEE Picardie

Program Authority:

Regional Council of Picardie

Program Delivery Unit :

SPEE Picardie

Summary

The Regional Council of Picardie has decided the creation of a Public Energy Efficiency Service (Service Public de l’Efficacité Energétique or SPEE), which is an integrated service for the energy renovation of residential buildings, which offers advice, accompaniment, and financing of thermal retrofit projects of private homeowners.

This creation must be seen in the light of objectives of the Picardie Region within the boundaries of the Regional Climate Air Energy Scheme 2020 and 2050:

Massive thermal retrofit of residential homes
Experiment financing schemes that lift the barrier of advanced payment (i.e. third party financing) and current commercial bank financing logic (i.e. banks are not used to do EE investment, high interest received due to perceived risk, collateral requests…).
Substantial level of job creation
Organise the chain of professional contractors to ensure a minimum level of energy performance
Develop an integrated approach based on the qualification of local contractors
Lift the barriers of the development of energy renovation projects

Mobilise the local offerings of advice and works
Propose a thermal audit and advice to households
Propose a financing solution
Accompany homeowners during and after the works

Several initiatives were taken to stimulate both the demand and the offer for thermal retrofit:

Creation of an Energy Information Space network with 15 advisors
Management of contractors by local actors (e.g. Globe 21, MEF of Vermandois,…)
Regional experiment with zero interest rate loans for energy efficiency and renewable energy investments for residential homeowners (10.000 cases in 4 years)

Other initiatives were taken to stimulate the thermal retrofit market:

Deployment of the Energy Information Space network towards a more upstream accompaniment of residential homeowners during and after the works: retrofit technicians
Organisation of thermal retrofit contractors by stimulating grouping of companies
Assurance of the financing of retrofit works based on long term financial savings

All of this has led to the creation of the SPEE Picardie, that aims to put in place pilot projects over a 3-year period, following 3 major steps:

Regional deliberation on the creation of the SPEE
Creation of the regional agency (SPEE)
Installation of the agency in the different territories

The objective of the SPEE is to achieve thermal retrofit projects with a goal to save 50% to 75% of final energy consumptions, depending on the configurations.

The investments of the thermal retrofits have to generate financial energy savings equal to the reimbursement of the loan over the duration of the investments, without additional subsidies.

Documents

Overview

Ownership:

Public [5]

Implementation Model:

Separate Contracting based [6]

Operating Services:

Marketing [7]

Integration [8]

Financial Advisory [9]

Financing [10]

Assessment [11]

Type of Project:

Energy Efficiency (building retrofits) [12]

Ambition/Targets:

Up to 75% reduction of energy consumption [13]

Benificiaries:

Residential Sector [14]

Funding Vehicle:

Financial Institutions [15]

Financial Instruments:

Equity/Own funds [16]

Loans [17]

Grants [18]

Scalability of the Model:

High [19]

Development Maturity:

Growth [20]

Financing Model

Model Description

How does it work?

The operator of the SPEE assures different services, creating important economies of scale:

Centralized operations:

Service development and marketing
Development of the information system
Administrative management, management control and audits
Creation and management of IT and internet tools
Financial engineering
Regional partnerships and training
Refinancing management, i.e. creating a revolving structure

Local operations

Management of customer facing personnel
Management of local partners (construction contractors, experts)
Customer contacts and project follow-up

The SPEE incorporates a third party financing offering. The financing capacity of the retrofit works through third party financing is:

Ratio of gains through savings on the heating bill:

85% to finance the thermal retrofit works
15% for the end customer (without taking in to account any subsidies)

From the residential homeowner’s point of view:

Classical loan today for the retrofit of a home: costs 330 €/month with a reimbursement over an 8 years period
Monthly contribution in the framework of the SPEE: 120 €/month over a 25 years period
Systematic access to pre-financing even without availability of additional debt capacity

The SPEE has identified 3 main typologies of works:

Scenario 1: Insulation of walls, roofs, floors, double glazing, ventilation
Scenario 2: Scenario 1 + thicker insulation
Scenario 3: Scenario 2 + triple glazing on North side + dual flow mechanical ventilation + heat pump

The average cost of the measures is 30.000 € VAT excl. for a home and 15.000 € VAT excl. for an apartment.

In addition to the availability of white certificates, homeowners can benefit from grants from the ANAH (Agence National de l’HAbitat).

Associated with the program of the SPEE is a training program for local contractors, called PRAXIBAT, implicating 17 partner schools and technical training centres.

Organization and Partnerships

N/A

Beneficiaries

Beneficiaries:

Residential buildings

Operational Support:

Full facilitation of renovation works

Financial Support:

Third party financing and facilitation of financing through banks

Program Delivery Unit

The management of the SPEE is ensured by the creation of a personalised agency that plays the role of project management assistant towards residential homeowners. The SPEE ensures following services:

Advice to residential homeowners (realisation of a thermal audit and proposal of measures)
Assistance to the execution of the works (support in choosing contractors, follow-up of the measures, post-works follow-up)
Third party financing ensured by the SPEE or by partner financial institutions (long term loan) in accordance with the debt capacity of the homeowner
Long term accompaniment and maintenance of the equipment

The SPE has streamlined a process along the following steps:

Receipt of demands by phone, sorting between simple requests for information and real projects
On site visit
Complete thermal diagnosis and determination of scenarios of works
Contractual agreement with the SPEE
Request for proposals from and choice of contractors
Implementation of the financial proposal
Execution of works (with initial and intermediate meetings)
Reception (i.e. approval) of works
Post-works visits (1/year during 5 years)
Management of financial “events” (defaults, mutations…)

The cost for one technician to accompany 90 households is 50.000 €/year, with 45 projects implemented. 6 technicians where put in place in 2015, with an aim of 12 in 2015, 18 in 2016 and 24 in 2017.

The financing need for the operator of the SPEE is 58 M€ for 2000 projects:

50 M€ for the works
8 M€ for the operations (agency, renovation technicians, pilot sites, first loss guarantee fund)

The hypotheses on the operator’s financing needs are:

8 M€ initial public regional financing grant
42 M€ of debt (European Investment Bank and Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations)
3 M€ contribution to Public Service
2 M€ technical assistance (EIB ELENA), still running untill 2017
2 M€ valorisation of white certificates (CEE), up to 9% of the amount of works
1 M€ CPER (Contrat de Plan Etat-Région) Picardie/FEDER grant

From an initial model of partial integrator/facilitator in which the SPEE coordinated the work of the contractors (for applying the measures) and local partners (for audits and choice of contractors), because of the difficulty to work with the monopoly of banks on financing, a new model was put in place in which the SPEE plays the role of a full integrator, subcontracting the works to the contractors and local partners.

Program Delivery Unit Box

Legal Structure:

Public local industrial and commercial entity (Etablissement public local à caractère industriel et commercial (EPIC))

Equity:

8 000 000.00€

Shareholders:

Regional Council of Picardie

Staff Requirements:

Unknown [21]

Operational Costs:

Less than 10 million EUR [22]

Impact on Public Balance Sheet:

High [23]

Financial Details

Funding Mechanism

Delivery Unit Funding:

8 M€ through public regional grant 2 M€ of technical assistance grant

Projects Funding:

42 M€ of debt 2 M€ of white certificates

Results

1000 homes renovated through 25 M€ of investments for 50% to 75% savings.

Contacts

SPEE Picardie

11, mail Albert 1er
80000 AMIENS

Telephone:

+33 (0)810 140 240

E-Mail:

contact@picardie-spee.fr [24]

Sources

http://www.pass-renovation.picardie.fr [25]
http://www.picardie.fr/La-Region-cree-le-Service-Public [26]
15èmes Assisses de l’Energie, Atelier 5, Création d’une régie personnalisée pour gérer un service public de l’efficacité énergétique en Picardie, 28 Janvier 2014
Press communication, Le Conseil régional de Picardie crée le Service Public de l’Efficacité Energétique et une régie dédiée : une initiative unique en France Amiens, 15 November 2013
Pierre Sachsé, Installation de la régie du service public de l’efficacité énergétique en Picardie, Atelier ManagEnergy, Halle PAJOL, 27 March 2014
Christophe Porquier, Présentation du service public de l’efficacité énergétique en Picardie
Vincent Piboleu, Présentation du service public de l’efficacité énergétique en Picardie, RDV de l’ADEME, 26 June 2014
Picardie La Région, Préfiguration d’un service public de l’efficacité énergétique en Picardie, CODIR, 10 September 2013