Energy Efficiency Certificates (EEC) and Financial Incentives
Over the last few decades EU and National policies have been focusing on enhancing energy efficiency and implementing measures aimed at saving energy consumption. Currently Italian legislation provides several incentives and financial instruments to enforce in this context such as income tax deductions, contributions for specific interventions regarding the substitution of old machinery (conto termico) and Energy Efficiency Certificates (EEC), to name just the most important ones.
VDP, as an Energy Service Company registered with GSE (Gestore Servizi Energetici – Manager of the Energy Services) and GME (Gestore Mercati Energetici - Manager of the Energy Markets), assures its customers assistance and advice in developing energy-saving interventions and provides a further intervention enhancement through obtaining, managing and trading ECC arising from efficiency measures.
EEC, more commonly known as White Certificates, are documents certifying that a specific reduction of energy consumption has been attained by a person or a company as a result of determined measures to improve energy efficiency. These documents represent also securities similar to shares in the financial market, in the sense that they can be regularly traded on a dedicated market managed, regulated and supervised by the GME.
White certificates system, according to D.M. of December 28, 2012, compels the largest distributors of electricity and natural gas to annually reach certain quantities of primary energy savings, expressed in tonnes of oil equivalent (toe). Such companies must fulfill the obligations prescribed by legislation implementing energy efficiency projects which are considered in the EEC mechanism or by purchasing the certificates from other actors through the EEC market.
Each saved toe corresponds, previous multiplication by a coefficient, to a White Certificate. It is important to point out that Energy Efficiency Certificates have to be requested by an Energy Service Company accredited with the GSE.
Interventions included in the EEC system have to obtain a precise and quantified evaluation of the actual energy consumption reduction. There are different types of energy efficiency projects and three methods for their assessment.
In order to obtain White Certificates, the project must achieve a minimum level of energy saving: 20 EEC for projects evaluated by standard sheets, 40 EEC in case of analytical sheets and 60 EEC for those not included in standard or analytical sheets (final evaluation).
Objectives of the work
Due to the high cost of energy, which is now an important element in financial statements, companies and enterprises are forced to deal with increasingly onerous costs leading to a halt in investments aimed at improving their competitiveness on the market.
VDP, through its services, offers energy efficiency solutions with the goal of decreasing consumption, thus reducing the amount of bills and allowing access to the economic incentives provided by European and national policies. In this way an economic and financial value is generated by the energy management of production processes, buildings and offices.
The proposed energy saving can be achieved through actions of different nature. It is possible to act both on the design of plants, increasing the performance of the building or renovating facilities, and on raising the technological content of the company, taking advantage of new technologies.
The energy savings attained with the implementation of energy efficiency interventions can be certified and awarded thanks to White Certificates (EEC) which can be traded on the energy market managed by GME.
The path proposed by VDP permits to select the most effective interventions, identifying the cost-effectiveness through EEC achievement and reduction of bill amounts caused by the decrease of energy consumption.
Offered services
VDP presents a solution able to fulfill the requirements defined by legislation while generating technological innovation and economic gain for the Client Company.
Precisely in this context VDP offers its support in determining, planning and managing energy efficiency projects which allow the Client to obtain important benefits, such as reduced energy consumption and achievement of incentives related to the energy saving measures planned.
VDP, as an Energy Service Company, also provides assistance and advice in the enhancement of energy efficiency projects through obtaining and managing Energy Efficiency Certificates (EEC).
The process of Energy Management we propose can be summarized into four main stages as listed below:
VDP, being an Energy Service Company registered with GSE, is able to develop projects for the achievement of White Certificates and can provide their management and trading.