City of Essen wins European Award for Energy Efficiency

The City of Essen has won one of seven awards at this year’s European Energy Service Award (EESA) ceremony. With an Energy Performance Contracting (EPC) Project in Essen City Hall that has undergone an extensively renovation in terms of energy efficiency, high cost savings and a reduction in CO₂ emissions have been achieved. The Berliner Energieagentur (BEA) together with the European Commission award the prizes, in three different categories, to outstanding European projects and institutions in the field of energy services. Other winners were municipalities, institutions and companies from Croatia, Germany, Italy, Romania and Slovenia.

Keynote speaker for the awards ceremony was Dr. Peter Liese, Member of European Parliament and coordinator of the European People's Party in the Committee for the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety: He said: “Today's award-winning projects demonstrate that energy efficiency measures, especially those implemented with the EPC, are beneficial not only in terms of saving costs for companies, and thus for regional value creation, but also for the climate.”

The Chief Executive Officer of Berliner Energieagentur Michael Geissler stated: “The EPC is a key tool for promoting climate protection. Since 2005, the European Energy Service Award has been contributing to establishing this instrument in Europe, and to promoting energy service market development.”

The award winners are:

„Best Energy Service Project” Category

EPC Project for Essen City Hall, Germany: Through energy-oriented refurbishment of the technical systems (ventilation, air-conditioning, sanitary and electrical systems) of Essen City Hall and simultaneous reduction of the high financial and personnel costs for smooth operation, operational savings of €829,000 per year and a reduction of 2,185 tons of CO₂ emissions have been achieved.

Energy retrofit of public buildings in the City of Ljubljana: The public tender for the energy retrofit included 48 buildings, among them primary schools, sports centres and administrative buildings. 25 buildings were fully energy retrofitted, and 23 partly. Through proper insulation, energy efficiency measures, the introduction of energy management systems and remote control for monitoring, the City of Ljubljana achieved financial savings of €1 million per year and a total reduction in CO₂ emissions of around 400,000 tons.

Through an academic-industry-public partnership in Romania, the Technical University of Cluj-Napoca (TUCN) together with the Centre of Resources for Energy Efficiency and Climate Change (CREESC) and the City Municipality of Cluj-Napoca started an ambitious Urban Energy Management project for the local community. Actions undertaken were public communication activities, workshops for public building administrators, coordination with Energy Action Plans and scheduled sustainable investments. €11.2 million has already been invested in the major renovation of 4 public buildings, with 9,400 MWh energy saved and 3,300 tons CO₂ emissions avoided per year. In 2018, 11 electric buses entered the public transport network with great success and around 60% of energy savings and CO₂ emissions avoided. Furthermore, the Cluj-Napoca City Municipality launched an Energy Efficiency Office and created 5 new jobs.

"Best European Energy Service Provider” Category

This E1 Energiemanagement GmbH EPC project with the Studierendenwerk Mannheim, Germany includes 8 halls of residence, with 370 apartments for 776 students (in former military buildings built between the 1930s and the 1960s). Through several energy efficiency measures and a complete renovation of one building with 43 student apartments, a reduction of 19% electricity, 18% district heating and 31% water consumption was achieved.

"Best European Energy Service Promoter” Category

Thanks to the Horizon 2020 EnerSHIFT project, a large-scale energy retrofit investment portfolio for public properties in the social housing sector in the Region of Liguria has been realised for the very first time in Italy. The result is that the first EPC tender for Social Housing has been launched, investments of €15 million have been triggered and 76 buildings have been retrofitted. This led to heat reduction of about 50% and a reduction in CO₂ emissions of more than 3,500 tons.

Recognition Awards

Apart from the awards, the jury also decided to hand out two recognition awards. The winners were:

The NEWLIGHT Project from Croatia: With the NEWLIGHT project, the modernisation of public lighting systems in 57 municipalities was addressed, with the potential to achieve up to 60% in energy and cost savings. In order to collect all the necessary technical data, REGEA developed a methodology for street lighting and specialised software/mobile app (GIS based) energy audits.

BIM Berliner Immobilienmanagement GmbH and B.E.M Berliner Energiemanagement GmbH from Berlin, Germany: Within the energy refurbishment of 47 fire departments and 18 colleges (total surface: 300,000 m²⁾, the large-scale implementation of low-investment measures has been kicked-off and save around 1,300 tonnes of CO₂ emissions per year.

About the project

European Energy Service Award (EESA)

The European Energy Service Award has been awarded to projects, companies and multipliers who have rendered outstanding services to the development of markets for energy services in Europe regularly since 2005.  The "Euro Heat & Power” magazine, Covenant of Mayors, EFIEES – European Federation of Intelligent Energy Efficiency Services, German Association of Energy and Water Industries and VfW (German Association of heat supply) were this year’s partners and media partners for the European Energy Service Award.

guarantEE: Energy Performance Contracting for Europe

The guarantEE-project is supported by the European Commission promoting the model of Energy Performance Contracting in Europe. Coordinated by BEA, partners from 13 countries are developing innovative business and financing models for performance-based energy service projects, supporting the establishment of Energy Performance Contracting by facilitating pilot projects, organising events, workshops and training as well as developing practical guides and public relations material.

Please find more information on the guarantEE project, as well as pictures from the awards ceremony, by following this link: http://www.guarantee-project.eu.