Assessment of the Potential of Commercial Buildings for Energy Management in Energy Performance Contracts

The Energy Performance Building Directive encourages Member States to establish clear long-term renovation strategies, highlighting the value of energy renovation for both the envelope and the smart services application in buildings. There is, however, a lack of works that effectively examine the cost-effectiveness linked to both the envelope retrofitting and the smartness of the building, which could hinder the effective implementation and prevent building owners, occupants, and stakeholders from taking full advantage of these strategies. This study presents a methodology to assess the most suitable “target” market across Europe for energy renovation. The work focuses on different typologies of commercial buildings, evaluating their potential for energy renovation under different boundary conditions such as climate or demand response market maturity. The assessment is performed in two stages: qualitative identification of those countries with the highest interest for renovation and energy management and quantitative assessment of the top candidates regarding their potential for renovation under different retrofitting scenarios in energy and economic terms. The study aims to serve as a decision-making process to explore and identify the potential for energy performance contracts for different typologies at the European level.