DEVELOPMENT OF THE ENERGY PERFORMANCE CONTRACTS

State of the art

The first project phase consists on an analysis of the current practices and opportunities to develop energy performance contracts for comprehensive refurbishment in the social housing sector: national regulations for social housing and state of the art of EPC.

Sites surveys

Partners will first propose a complete picture of the 4 pilot sites to be refurbished, underlining the leeway for successful implementation of a comprehensive refurbishment EPC. They will assess the physical description of the site, available data on energy consumption and previous building maintenance operations as well as social issues for each site (management, tenants, technical building management).
The partners will develop refurbishment scenarios for each of the 4 sites, in order to compare various options and see which combination can best fit the EPC scheme to be developed and related impacts in terms of energy savings (base-line calculation and refurbishment scenarios, detailing technical measures, associated energy savings, costs and pay back time).
Finally, partners will analyse financial flows and legal aspects applying to the pilot site, before implementation of the refurbishment programme and the EPC.

Finalising Energy Performance Contracting Schemes

Based on this previous analysis, partners will look at the details of and finalise the 4 specific energy performance contracts targeting the pilot sites and their comprehensive refurbishment programmes.
Taking into account the regulatory, technical, financial and legal aspects studied earlier, in a first step, financial simulation will help defining precisely the 4 refurbishment programmes.
In a second step, they will be integrated into the 4 energy performance contractual schemes which will be finalised. Energy indicators and measurements and verification protocols to be able to follow up the correct implementation of EPC will also be elaborated.
Based on this experience carried out at national level, generic tools targeting a wide European public will be produced: a financial simulation tool and a handbook on comprehensive refurbishment in the housing sector using EPC - including contracts' templates.
As a result of this first phase, partners will also produce recommendations for public authorities on the legal and regulatory frameworks which could be adapted to ease the development of EPC in the housing sector for comprehensive refurbishment programmes.

COMPREHENSIVE REFURBISHMENT OF THE PILOT SITES AND PERFORMANCES MONITORING

The second phase is the test phase of the FRESH project.

Material to inform tenants/home owners will be prepared and disseminated. This material will include the details of the works, the technical measures, the costs and their distribution over time, the expected benefits, the planed monitoring activities and a timetable.

In each country, after signature of the energy performance contracts, the works will start after due identification of contractors and procurement activities (through call for tenders or mutual agreements, according to appropriate national rules). A cross country report will be produced at the end of the implementation phase. This report will allow identifying the implementation difficulties which may be linked to different aspects of the refurbishment programme (technical aspects, communication with the tenants, unforeseen administrative and legal difficulties, etc.).

After the end of the refurbishment works, the monitoring phase will start and will cover 1 or 2 heating seasons. The energy consumption will be measured and simulated according to the indicators and the measurement & verification protocols agreed upon. The projects will also be monitored on economic performance, in terms of the cost of energy delivery, internal rate of return and payback period.

The results of this second phase will result in an updated version (version 2) of the three tasks in an updated version of the handbook on comprehensive refurbishment in the housing sector using EPC, including feedback from 1.5 year of concrete experience.

SYNTHESIS OF FINDINGS AND RESULTS DISSEMINATION

The two main target groups of the project are the European social housing operators and ESCO. They are the professional branches who will take forward the results of the project, replicating the FRESH's approach by using the produced methodologies and tools, refurbishing their sites and developing EPC business.
As a consequence of this replication, the other target groups (Energy agencies, public authorities, tenants and homeowners, financial institutions, architects and contractors) will also benefit from the project and act as multipliers.
Communication on the FRESH project’s progresses and results will therefore be carried out in several complementary ways:

• A multi language project web site, will allow visitors to learn more about the project, its progress and results, and to download available reports, tools and handbooks.
• Publications signed by project partners in the professional press during the project's duration.
• Institutional communication through the organisation of a national stakeholders committees in each country, inviting representatives of national federation of social housing operators and ESCO, representatives from tenants associations and homeowners, national and local governments, energy agencies, financial institutions, etc.
• Direct communication to social housing operators and ESCO;
• Finally, towards the end of the project, a national workshop will be organised in each country in order to present the results of the project.