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The determinants for adoption of energy supply contracting: Empirical evidence from the Swiss market
Energy Supply Contracting Adoption: Empirical Evidence from the Swiss Market
Energy supply contracting consisting in outsourcing energy-related services is considered as a promising tool to induce investment in energy efficiency and renewable technologies. Yet, energy contracting markets grow slowly and Switzerland is lagging behind. In order to assess whether the potentials are under-exploited, the determinants of energy supply contracting adoption are assessed using a random effects probit model on a dataset of 2,003 accepted and rejected contracts in Switzerland. Results show that the advantages of risk sharing and economies of scale brought by contracting as well as trust towards the supplier and the technology seem determining in the client's choice. The number of interlocutors involved, inducing higher expected adaptation costs, impacts negatively adoption. Less specific contracts involving residential or new buildings are more likely to be signed. The results imply that in order to fully exploit the potentials of contracting, a priority is to clarify to which extent owners can transfer the costs onto the tenants. Information campaigns are still needed to reduce the lack of confidence in energy renewable technologies. This study also provides the suppliers with guidelines to better exploit the market.
Energy service contracting: an economic perspective
Les contrats de services énergétiques consistent à externaliser au travers d’un contrat de longue durée la provision et l’optimisation de services d’énergie à un contracteur, nommé ESCO (Energy Service Company). Ce modèle d’affaire est perçu dans la littérature comme un instrument de marché prometteur pour déployer des projets liant énergie renouvelable et économies d’énergie. Cette thèse étudie empiriquement les déterminants d’adoption des contrats de service énergétique et les mécanismes économiques sous-jacents. Faisant suite à une introduction générale contenant une revue critique de la littérature, le premier chapitre se concentre sur l’adoption des contrats de fourniture énergétique, alors que le second chapitre examine la volonté d’opter pour des contrats de performance énergétique. Le dernier chapitre explore comment de nouvelles politiques énergétiques pourraient étendre l’offre de ces contrats. Les analyses reposent sur trois bases de données inédites, découlant de choix contractuels réels et de deux expériences à choix (préférences exprimées) ciblant la demande et l’offre potentielles sur le marché des contrats de services énergétiques. L’analyse empirique montre que le partage du risque est un déterminant important dans le choix du client d’adopter de tels contrats. Les économies d’échelle et la confiance ont aussi un impact, alors que le financement par l’ESCO a un effet positif seulement pour une minorité. Les coûts de transactions de ces contrats sont exacerbés par le nombre de décisionnaires impliqués. Du côté de l’offre, seuls d’importants changements sur le marché de l’énergie, par exemple l’introduction de certificats blancs ou une augmentation de la demande de contracting de la part des clients privés et publics, ont un impact significatif sur l’offre. En se basant sur des méthodes empiriques inédites dans le domaine, cette thèse de doctorat offre de nouvelles perspectives sur les mécanismes susceptibles d’étendre la diffusion de ces contrats et ainsi exploiter leur potentiel dans la transition énergétique et les opportunités commerciales. Abstract: Energy service contracting consists in the outsourcing of energy-related services to a contractor, an Energy Service Company (ESCO), through a long-term contract. This business model has been deemed, in the literature, a promising market-based instrument to foster the deployment of renewable energy and energy conservation projects. This thesis examines empirically the determinants of adoption of energy service contracting and their underlying economic mechanisms. After a general introduction including a critical literature review, the first chapter focuses on adoption of energy supply contracting (ESC), while the second chapter examines the willingness to opt for energy performance contracting (EPC). The last chapter assesses how new energy policies could expand the supply-side of ESC and EPC. The analyses are based on three original datasets, including real contractual choices and two stated choice experiments targeted at the potential demand and supply of the energy service contracting market. The empirical evidence suggests that risk sharing is an important determinant of the client’s adoption. Economies of scale and trust have also an impact, while the financing from the ESCO has a positive effect only for a minority of energy consumers. The transaction costs involved in these contracts are exacerbated by the number of decision-makers involved. On the supply side, only important changes in the energy market, such as the implementation of White Certificates or an increase in the demand of energy contracting from both public and private clients, have a significant impact on the willingness to enter the ESCO market. Using original empirical methods, this PhD thesis provides new insights in the mechanisms that could foster the diffusion of these contracts and exploit their potential in the energy transition and in business opportunities.
Contracting the Gap: Energy Efficiency Investments and Transaction Costs
Estimating the Benefits of an Improvement in Water Quality and Flow Regulation: Case study of the Doubs
This paper evaluates the benefit resulting from an improvement in water quality and flow regulation in the Doubs, a river at the border between Switzerland and France. The river’s biodiversity is nowadays threatened by pollution and large flow variations caused by hydropower plants. A hypothetical travel cost method is used, to estimate the economic value of recreational fishing in the Doubs under the current situation (2010) and under a hypothetical improvement. Thus, 225 anglers stated in a mail survey (June 2011), their behavior under the two situations. Since each angler reported the number of visits for up to 3 fishing sites, a correlated random effects model could be estimated. This method allows a better control for unobserved heterogeneity. By comparing consumer surplus estimations under the two situations, the annual benefit of an improvement in water quality and flow regulation ranges, from 1450 CHF to 1700 CHF per angler. Since recreational use is only a small part of the total economic value of the river, these estimations are not sufficient to give a complete measure of the economic benefits of the river’s restoration. However, an ex ante appraisal of a part of these benefits is useful for policy makers for comparison with eventual costs of restoration.