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Abstract: Energy Service Companies (ESCOs) provide a promising opportunity to achieve greenhouse gas emissions reductions through increased energy efficiency for public and private sectors in developing countries. This paper examines the potential for ESCOs in Romania, focusing on barriers to their growth and measures that can be undertaken to eliminate them.
About ESCO companies are said to "sell efficiency" or "buy inefficiency". They provide efficient services (optimization) energy, providing customer spending cuts, offering advice, financial solutions and investment partnership. The client - public or private - paid for several years ESCO investment made (if applicable) plus a percentage of profit means everything exclusively from the amount saved due to its sendees. In Romania there are currently only three ESCOs (Energy Sendee, Energ°Co and SE-GES) acting solely in the industrial sector in comparison with an average of 10 in the countries from Central Europe, 20 in France, 50 in Italy, etc.
Keywords: Energy, efficiency, cost savings, project management, ESCO companies
INTRODUCTION
The paper is presenting Energy Service Companies (hereinafter referred as ESCO), their status in specific developing countries, programs and mechanisms to increase ESCO's activity, barriers to ESCO success, innovative ESCO models and approaches to ESCO development, different solution for different sectors (fig.l) -public, industrial, residential and commercial- plus key measures that could facilitate ESCO industry success in Romania.
ESCO concept was born in Britain now more than 100 years, crossed the ocean in the US as "Third Party Financing" ("Financing Through Third Parties") and returned to the old continent in multiple variants. In Romania, ESCO companies now only operates in the industrial sector, and their number is much lower than the 10 recorded in the countries of Central and Western Europe. That's without having to take up the case of France - where there are over 20 such companies or in Italy, with more than 50.
However, once exceeded this stage, the system becomes a true ESCO industry, every company of this kind can have turnovers of hundreds of millions of euros per year, although in Romania there were over 100 such companies, thanks needs and market capacity.
These optimistic forecasts are based on the reality that energy inefficiency in Romania is very high, with large reserves of action in this regard. Romania...