Bundling sustainable energy investments in Girona [ES]

The Provincial Council of Girona (DDGI) is a local public administration endowed with certain powers for the government and administration of the province of Girona. It provides direct services to citizens as well as technical, economic and technological support to all the 221 municipalities in the province. In addition, it coordinates municipal services of supra-municipal nature.

Since 2012 the Province Council is Covenant of Mayor Territorial Coordinator. More than 205 municipalities have signed the Covenant of Mayors and have approved their Sustainable Energy Action Plan (SEAP). All these municipalities have received economic and technical support from DDGI. In the last 4 years the DDGI has increased its commitment and a specific sustainable energy team has been hired to support the municipalities to mobilise sustainable energy investments through innovative financial and organisational schemes. So DDGI’s mission is to focus on deployment and implementation of sustainability and efficiency of energy in facilities and buildings of Girona’s Province to obtain substantial savings and to contribute to preserve our environment.

The programme

Girona Provincial Council’s Bundling sustainable energy investments (BEenerGi) programme provides the necessary technical, legal and financial assistance for municipalities that have signed the Covenant of Mayors. The aim is to mobilise investments to promote energy efficiency in public lighting and in municipal buildings (which includes creating heating networks).

The BEenerGi programme promotes new organisational models through innovative funding systems. One of the cornerstones of the programme is reinforcing the capacities of the key stakeholders (SMEs, public administration staff, financial entities) and the ultimate beneficiaries (the municipalities). In addition, BEenerGi also provides access to data on local energy consumption and encourages the results of the programme to be shared throughout Europe so that these new schemes can be replicated in other regions.

Specific aims of the programme

Launch investments in sustainable energy

To accelerate public investment in energy:

• Investments in energy efficiency in public lighting in 65 municipalities, with an associated investment of €6.48 million.
• Investments in energy efficiency in 85 municipal buildings in 50 municipalities (replacing diesel/LPG boilers with biomass boilers), with an associated investment of €9.40 million and other smaller investments in energy efficiency.

Strengthen innovative organisational models

To pool investment in sustainable energy into packs which are easier to fund and to simplify the legal and technical aspects of administrative procedures:

• Mechanisms for securing pooled investments.
• Ensure that the specific studies commissioned meet technical content requirements.
• Obtain feedback on the continuous improvement process.
• Create tendering models.

Establish and promote a new financing system

Test the viability of new financing systems in the province of Girona through contracts with energy service companies (ESCO), micro, small and medium energy service companies (SME-MESCO), pooling small and medium investments in different municipalities in the Girona region:

• Provide funding for BEenerGi projects to ensure their final implementation.
• Promote ESCO contracts in Girona’s municipalities.
• Create new financing models (contracts with small energy service companies SME-MESCO).

Develop capacities

To train all the key stakeholders and ultimate beneficiaries (capacity-building for 180 people). The bulk of the efforts will focus on local small and medium-sized companies in the energy sector (local maintenance firms, local energy suppliers, etc.) to turn them into micro-energy service companies (MESCO).

Provide access to data on energy consumption

Making data on energy consumption in 85 municipal buildings and electricity used by public lighting in more than 65 municipalities available to all interested parties.

Technical & Financial Details

The Financing scheme used was Energy Performance Contracting (EPC) - ESCO.

Sources of Funds: ERDF, Loans, Public loans, MESCO, ESCO and Public budget

Key Success Factors (Replication Potential)

The BEenerGi programme is launching a total amount of 35.25 million € in sustainable energy investments for street lighting investments and public buildings in Girona (Dec 2018), when the original objective was 15.88 million €, thus accelerating public energy investments. This translates in a reduction of 5,569 tons of CO₂ per year and an economic saving of 1.5 million € annually. Many of the more than 108 municipalities served have a population of less than 5,000 inhabitants. Approximately 70 tendering processes are being entrusted to the programme, in an innovative new bundled tendering model counting with local SME and MESCO, of which more than 50 benefited from free training courses in all the aspects of this new financial scheme.