Development Of Energy Performance Contracting Research Articles

Empirical Study on Annual Energy-Saving Performance of Energy Performance Contracting in China

A lack of trust in Energy Service Company (ESCo) is the most critical factor affecting the development of Energy Performance Contracting (EPC) in China, compared with other constraints. One cannot easily estimate the energy-saving performance of an EPC project. Under that condition, lack of trust may cause the Energy-Consuming Unit (ECU) to suspect the energy-saving performance promised by the ESCo, thus leaving potentially profitable projects without necessary funding. Currently, specific studies taking an across-projects viewpoint on annual energy-saving performance of EPC projects in multiple subsectors, objectively and quantitatively, are lacking. This paper studies the regression relationships of annual energy-saving quantity in terms of revamping cost and the regression relationships of annual cost saving in terms of revamping cost. The regression results show that there are statistically significant correlations in the above relationships in the nine subsectors investigated. This is significant for ESCos and ECUs, because knowledge on energy-saving performance could contribute to EPC investment decisions and trust relationships between ESCos and ECUs. Then, a multiple linear regression model of revamping cost is set up to analyze its influencing factors. The model indicates that the subsector the sample belongs to, financing, registered capital of the ESCo, and contract period have significant effects on revamping cost. Thus, policy implications regarding innovation of EE promotion technology, clarifying ESCos’ exit mechanism, innovation of financing mechanism, and improving the market credit environment for promoting investment in EPC projects, are provided.

Energy Performance Contracting and Application in Energy Conservation of Industrial Boilers

Development of energy performance contracting (EPC) was introduced in this paper. The basic models generally include energy conservation benefit payment, energy conservation benefit sharing, and energy conservation amount guarantee, etc. The essence of EPC is that energy service companies (ESCO) share the energy conservation benefits with customers. Recent progress on the critical success factors of EPC projects and the analysis methods was briefly introduced. Taking the pulverized coal industrial boiler as an example, application of EPC in energy conservation of industrial boilers was described.

Discussion on the Development of Energy Performance Contracting in the Field of Building Energy Saving

This paper mainly focuses on the application of Energy Performance Contracting (EPC) in building sector and also makes some analysis and discussions on its development. Combining with the characteristics of China’s EPC in building sector, this paper analyses and elaborates on the obstacles that we may face in the process of its development, puts forward some suggestions on the basis of comprehensive analysis, in order to provide reference for the development of China’s EPC on architectural field.

Current market development of energy performance contracting

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the current market development of Energy Performance Contracting (EnPC) in Hong Kong and Taiwan, focussing on four key aspects: first, the potential building energy retrofits as an investment for future savings; second, the motivations for building owners toward the use of EnPC; third, the reasons for building owners not using EnPC; and fourth, the different approaches of Hong Kong and Taiwanese governments toward the promotion of EnPC. Design/methodology/approach – A dual-questionnaire survey was conducted both in Hong Kong and Taiwan, where the same set of questionnaire was sent to the key personnel of the energy services companies (ESCOs) in both regions as identified from the latest member lists of representative trade associations, supplement with 11 structured interviews. Findings – Apart from explainable differences, the results show the top rankings by the respondents of Hong Kong and Taiwan as follows: “Potential retrofit works” including lighting replacement with efficient fluorescent and light emitting diode lamps and improvement of air-con system. “EnPC Motivations” including owners’ lack of upfront capital and use of energy savings for other purposes may yield better returns; ESCOs’ provision of turnkey services. “Reasons not considering EnPC” including worry about its complexities; lack of familiarity with EnPC and long payback periods. As for promotional efforts for EnPC, the Taiwan government has taken more initiatives to foster its use both technically and financially. Practical implications – This study identifies market-related motivators and deterrents as experienced by ESCOs in implementing EnPC projects in two developed Asian economies. Originality/value – This study provides insightful information for the stakeholders about the latest market development of EnPC in Hong Kong and Taiwan.

Development and validation of a gray box model to predict thermal behavior of occupied office buildings

Due to the development of energy performance contracting and the needs for peak electric demand reduction, the interest for building energy demand prediction is renewed. Gray-box models are a solution for energy demand prediction. However, it is still difficult to find the best level of model complexity and the good practices for the training phase. Since models’ order and parameter identification method have a strong impact on the forecasting precision and are not intuitive, a comparative design approach is used to find the best model architecture and an adequate methodology for improving the training phase. The gray box models are compared on their ability to forecast heating and cooling demands and indoor air temperature. An objective function is proposed aiming to minimize both power and indoor temperature prediction errors. Moreover, for each model, several training period durations are tested. First, this study shows that a R6C2 (second order model) model is adapted to predict the building thermal behavior. Furthermore, the best fits are obtained with two weeks of data for the identification process. Second, a sensitivity analysis using total Sobol index calculation leads to validate the objective function and identify the most important parameters for prediction.

Energy Performance Contracting and its Application in HVAC

This article elaborates the origin and development of energy performance contracting (EPC) and its implementation process, and summarizes the EPCs applications in the field of HVAC. At the same time, it analyzes the model of energy-saving benefit sharing which is applied to HVAC.

Engineering Risk Management Planning in Energy Performance Contracting in China

The main purpose of this article is to define engineering risk existing in the process of the development of Energy Performance Contracting (EPC) and to provide a system and quantitative evaluation method to reduce engineering risk of EPC. We systematically studied the engineering risk existing in EPC: the political and legal risk, market risk, technology risk, management risk, financial risk, project quality risk and client risk. By using the mature ideas, tools, and technology of risk management - experts’ marking methods and synthetic evaluation method based on fuzzy theory, the target system of evaluation on EPC is discussed, qualitative and quantitative risk evaluation is conducted, and the guiding ideas and the model are provided. At last, by putting forward the corresponding measures for the EMC to control risk in the operation, this article provides reference point for the risk management planning of EPC.