Imagine you run a small business and you know your building wastes energy, but hiring someone to fix it costs almost as much as the savings you'd get. The paperwork, contracts, and financing are all designed for big buildings and big budgets. EPC+ created ready-to-use energy service packages — think of them like menu options instead of custom catering — so energy service companies can offer affordable upgrades to smaller businesses across Europe. They tested these packages with real companies in 11 countries and built an online marketplace to match businesses with energy service providers.
Small and mid-sized businesses waste energy but cannot access energy performance contracting because the procurement processes, contracts, and verification procedures are designed for large-scale projects. The transaction costs are too high, investment sizes too small, and financing too hard to obtain — making it unprofitable for energy service companies to serve the SME market.
The project delivered standardized energy service packages (bundling technical solutions, model contracts, and financing options) tailored to each of 11 countries, plus pilot implementations, trained company clusters (SPINS) ready to offer these services commercially, and an international e-market platform connecting energy service providers with SME clients.
If you are an energy service company struggling to serve small and mid-sized clients because the contracting and measurement costs eat into your margins — this project developed standardized energy service packages with model contracts and financing solutions, piloted across 11 countries, that drastically cut transaction costs so you can profitably serve SMEs.
If you are a property manager dealing with high energy bills across a portfolio of smaller buildings but cannot justify individual energy audits and custom contracts for each — this project created ready-made energy performance packages with guaranteed savings, tested in pilot projects, that bundle the technical solution, contract, and financing into one standardized offering.
If you are a small manufacturer facing rising energy costs but your facility is too small to attract traditional energy service providers — this project built clusters of companies (called SPINS) in each participant country that specifically offer energy services to the SME market, plus an international e-market platform to connect you with qualified providers.
The project did not publish specific pricing. The core goal was to reduce transaction costs drastically so that smaller investments become viable for energy service companies targeting SMEs. Contact the coordinator for current pricing models developed during the pilot phase.
Yes — the packages were designed for scalability through standardization. They were developed and piloted across 11 countries with country-specific adaptations. The project also built an international e-market platform to enable cross-border matching of energy service providers and clients.
As a Coordination and Support Action (CSA) funded by the EU, the standardized packages, model contracts, and training materials were developed for broad market uptake. Based on available project data, the outputs were designed for commercial use by energy service providers. Contact the coordinator at CRES (Greece) for licensing terms.
Pilot projects were implemented in 11 countries: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Germany, Greece, Spain, Ireland, Italy, Portugal, and Slovenia. Each country developed packages tailored to their specific legal and market requirements.
The project addressed procurement law provisions as a key barrier to energy performance contracting. The standardized model contracts were designed to comply with each participant country's legal requirements. The EuroSciVoc classification includes law and climatic change mitigation.
The project developed training programs for company clusters (SPINS) in each participant country. Based on available project data, the packages include standardized technical solutions, model contracts, and financing solutions — designed to be adopted without lengthy custom development.
The project set up and trained clusters of companies (SPINS) in each of the 11 participant countries to offer energy services to the SME market. Training materials and the international e-market platform were core deliverables among the 43 total deliverables produced.
The EPC+ consortium of 14 partners across 11 European countries is deliberately built for market reach rather than pure research. With 6 industry partners and 7 SMEs (43% industry ratio), the team is weighted toward commercial deployment. The 4 research organizations and 1 university provide the analytical backbone, while the geographic spread — from Greece to Ireland, Bulgaria to Portugal — ensures the standardized packages were stress-tested against very different legal systems, energy markets, and business cultures. For a business looking to adopt these packages, this broad consortium means the solutions have already been adapted to diverse regulatory environments.
Centre for Renewable Energy Sources and Saving (CRES), Greece — a major national research body for energy. Reach out to their energy services or EPC department.
Want access to the standardized EPC packages or introductions to the trained company clusters? SciTransfer can connect you with the right consortium partner for your country and sector.
