Energy Project Financing : Resources and Strategies for Success

84 Energy Project Financing: Resources and Strategies for Success

an annual event.* More recently, the ESCO concept has become accepted

in Asia. In late 2007, the Japanese and Chinese ESCO associates put

together the second Asia ESCO Conference in Beijing. Some version of

performance contracting is now being practiced in all industrialized na-

tions and most developing countries. The US Agency for International

Development, the World Bank, Asian Development Bank, and the Eu-

ropean Bank for Reconstruction and Development are all very active in

fostering ESCO industries in developing countries.

TYPICAL ESCO SERVICES

Through the years, ESCO services have become more varied. It

has become a customer-driven industry, and the customer typically has

a selection of ESCO services from which to choose. Services offered by

an ESCO usually include:

• An investment grade energy audit to identify energy and opera-
  tional savings opportunities, assess risks, determine risk manage-
  ment/mitigating strategies, and calculate cost-effectiveness of
  proposed measures over time;


• Financing from its own resources or through arrangements with
  banks or other financing sources;


• The purchase, installation and maintenance of the installed energy-
  efficient equipment (and possibly maintenance on all energy-con-
  suming equipment);


• New equipment training of operations and maintenance (O&M)
  personnel;


• Training of O&M personnel in energy-efficient practices;


• Monitoring of the operations and energy savings so reduced en-
  ergy consumption and operation costs persist;

*See “Latest Development of Energy Service Companies across Europe,” authored by Paolo

Bertoldi, Beneigna Boza-Kiss, and Silvia Rezessy, published in 2007 by the IES of the Joint

Research Center, European Commission. ISBN 978-92-79-06965-9.