The PPP approach and the use of the EPC have been used in the first public tender launched in 2018, but no offers have been submitted to the tender at the due date. The partners and subcontractors immediately deepened the emerged critical issues in order to publish a new and effective tender, referring to the optimization of the innovative scheme outputs’ introduced, such as the energy audit, the EPC draft, the business plan.
A favorable legal and/or regulatory framework is a very important factor because the temporary lack of some Italian regulations regarding, for example, the Code of Contract applying or the public contribution to EE investments in Italy, caused some delays in the project.
The opportunity coming from a private operator (ESCo) presenting a proposal under art. 183 c. 15 of D.Lgs 50/2016 and the public co-funding introduced (coming from Basilicata Region) in the project helped the process optimization to be easier and more effective.
The methods and tools provided within the project are expected to be furthermore applied for new EE investments’ projects.
It was not possible to complete the evaluation process of the project proposal within the life time of the Grant Agreement and to sign the contract with the ESCo.
Below the main issues faced and the results achieved within the project life time, in terms of know-how and capacity building.
For energy efficiency projects, bankability is one of the main issues.
Another contribution of the project to the removal of regulatory and non-regulatory barriers to EE financing is the capacity building developed within the institutions involved.
The project contributed also to policy development as demonstrated by the commitment of Regione Basilicata to co-financing with the sum of 1 million the energy efficiency interventions to be carried out as part of the FESTA Project in order to maximize its own environmental objectives.
The capacity building accrued thank to the project can be referred also to the market. A consultation process with ESCos has been conducted, according to the Italian regulation (art. 66 of D.Lgs. 50/2016).
Economic operators were invited to provide suggestions, elaborate comments, highlight critical issues, illustrate technical or contractual solutions deemed preferable or convenient, describe previous experiences regarding the relevant aspects.
On the subject of the EE stakeholders mobilisation and institutionalisation of efforts, during the project life time it has been held specific training days designed to illustrate the technical, financial and legal aspects of developed practices sharing both the processes and the models set up with the project.
The main local dissemination events and training days held:
• No. 2 seminars on the implementation of Energy Performance Contracts (EPC)
• No. 2 training days on Energy Efficiency (EE) theme, use of EPC and other financial schemes for EE measure, their legal and financial aspects etc.
• press conferences
• participation in conferences and forum on EE theme.
The Horizon 2020 contribution played an important role in the project implementation and in its challenging innovative solutions to be realized because the lack of adequate professional skills within the public administration has been compensated by the support of external specialists which have been funded within the project.
At the same time, the H2020 Agency in charge of the project stimulated and created new opportunities to learn even with several seminars and events on the subject.
