SmartSPIN will develop, test, validate and exploit a new business model that leads to greater uptake of Smart Energy Services (SES) deployed via performance-based contracting in the commercial rented sector. This sector has huge untapped potential for energy efficiency and flexibility but the split incentive problem has so far prevented the use of performance-based approaches to realise these savings. SmartSPIN removes this barrier through an Energy Efficiency-as-a-Service (EEaaS) concept that couples the contractual agreements between tenants, building owners and energy efficiency providers with technologies for energy monitoring, management and measurement and verification (M&V), increasing transparency, credibility and persistence of savings. SmartSPIN brings together a consortium of leading experts from the whole value chain to develop the SmartSPIN business model toolkit: a set of tools and resources for stakeholders on both the supply side (energy service companies, M&V specialists, etc.) and the demand side (tenants, building owners etc.) of the value chain. Technical resources include data-based M&V tools for accurate baseline estimation and predictive algorithms for building operation and control available via an Application Programming Interface to use with any energy data visualisation platform. Non-technical resources include best practice guides for stakeholders looking to deploy the SmartSPIN business model, contractual templates for EEaaS, case studies and infographics to describe the key features to a non-technical audience. SmartSPIN will validate the toolkit through extensive stakeholder engagement and by demonstrating its effectiveness in the commercial rented sector in 3 pilot regions (Spain, Greece and Ireland). To maximise impact, SmartSPIN will train 350 stakeholders on the business model’s key features through a series of pan-European exploitation workshops and webinars who will become early adopters beyond the end of the project.

Energy Conscious Consumers ECO2 will facilitate a large amount of consumers to become conscious about and improve their energy efficiency. It will offer them two forms of learning. Either they choose to go alone through an online e-learning, or they choose to be brought through transformative group learning, in which the e-learning system supports the group processes. Together the two – single or group processes - provide attractive approaches for a wide array of consumer segments. The ECO2 processes are based on “blended” engagement methods, making use of both online and dialogue elements. Consumers will be recruited by contacts through social media, consumer media, energy suppliers and other gatekeepers. Segmentation will be used to increase the effectiveness of recruitment and to adapt the e-learning processes. The processes will be thematic, facilitated by an online ECO2 Platform, based on the online/blended engagement platform EngageSuite. Each consumer will be stepping up a ‘ladder of change’ from Motivation to Exploration and finally to Action. In the process the user receives information, reflects/deliberates and seeks knowledge and knowledge sharing. The user creates her/his own action plan on the next personal steps to take. ECO2 will deliver “Actions” on five important themes – the house, smart equipment, energy use/bills, rebound and prosuming. Further, an Action on co-creation of policies, innovations and designs will be executed and the results communicated to policy-makers and innovators through policy seminars. ECO2 has three phases – Ramp-up, Pilot and Upscaling. Ramp-up makes infrastructures, segmentation analysis, story-boards and production of themes. Pilots test the Actions with voluntary consumers. Upscaling involves viral recruitment of consumers, expansion to new countries, and collaboration with consumer gate-keepers. ECO2 will continue after end of project by: 1) an ECO2 Community, 2) stakeholder responsibility for the ECO2 Platform.

The Energy Performance Contracting (EPC) model has been successful in attracting investments in energy efficiency, but mainly for single, large projects. Energy efficiency programs, on the other hand, constitute an alternative path to scaling up the number of buildings that implement energy efficiency interventions, but the practice of rebates and incentives that are paid up front creates a need to rely on deemed energy savings and on complex and costly regulations that hinder innovation. SENSEI will propose a solution to this deadlock. Building on earlier successful experimentation outside of the EU, we will design concepts and business models that will help: (a) generate new sources of benefits that increase the value of an energy retrofit project by enabling the compensation of energy efficiency as an energy resource, and (b) turn the project’s value into an investable asset to attract private financing. The main concept underlying the SENSEI business models is pay-for-performance (P4P), which offers an effective way to engage both energy providers and third-party investorsin energy efficiency. SENSEI will first elaborate P4P schemes for financing energy efficiency that can be implemented across the EU, and then integrate these P4P schemes with the preparation and implementation stages of the EPC model, with the intention of increasing and/or financing the gains in a building’s value that are produced by energy efficiency improvements. The developed concepts will utilize actual building data and the consortium’s competences to carry out a series of negotiation games among all SENSEI parties – representing all links in the EPC and P4P chain. The project has planned a series of activities to both disseminate the insights from these games and to support stakeholders in using our recommendations with the goal of rolling out the first P4P pilots in the EU.