The ClimACT project aimed to enter into the ESCO (Energy Service Company) market by rethinking some of the traditional ESCO business models, adapting them to the reality that is the scholar sector and defining some innovative features that appeal to the ESCO customer, in order to boost the market potential.
The most common contract used by ESCOs is the Energy Performance Contract. This contract has several variations but commonly is a type of contract where the ESCO evaluates and implements energy conservation measures that provide an attractive return-of-investment. Clients use part of the savings obtained from the measures applied to pay the ESCO. This type of contract can be seen as a win-win situation because ESCOs will make a profit but clients will be able to save money from the first day after the implementation of ECMs and do not need to have the financial means to do an upfront investment in energy efficiency solutions.
INNOVATION IN CLIMACT BUSINESS MODELS
- ClimACT business models include health and comfort parameters, which are related with the satisfaction and confidence of the client in these business models.
- They focus on low/no cost ECMs, such as energy management or maintenance actions. School were seen as a good target for these type of measures because during the audits it was identified that behaviours and lack of maintenance have a high impact on schools’ energy consumption.
- The ClimACT model proposes the use of school comparison system that will allow schools to assess their current efficiency status compared with other schools and possibly develop a healthy competition that translates into an added effort to use energy efficiency strategies.
- They consider occupants’ raising awareness as a tool for energy savings. They pretend to deploy an energy management framework but with the innovative feature of including a gamification framework that will help building occupants to understand and learn about the building energy systems and how their behaviours can affect the energy consumption.
- The project developed the ClimACT Resource-Matching Platform
