Introduction to Energy Performance Contracting: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
The goal of energy performance contracting (EPC) is to reduce energy consumption and costs through the acquisition of comprehensive capital energy improvements. A performance contracting agreement is a practical and economical way for public sector entities to obtain and finance needed capital energy projects for their facilities. These agreements provide an opportunity for agencies to free up scarce budget resources for other needed services and activities.
Energy performance contracting can provide the opportunity to pay for efficiency upgrades to buildings solely from the energy savings from those upgrades. This makes EPC an attractive approach to implementing energy efficiency in government buildings. Therefore, energy efficiency can quickly be incorporated into existing buildings without having to wait for capital money to be procured.
The EPA's "Introduction to Performance Contracting" explains in detail the characteristics of an EPC, the market drivers and characteristics that influence an EPC, and the processes to create and administer an EPC. Many state and federal agencies have also developed guides to energy performance contracting that would be useful to communities in developing their own EPC policies.
