Regulatory Barriers for Energy Service Companies

Summary

The Global ESCO Network has conducted a series of interviews with partner associations in order to map barriers for ESCOs that can be characterized as regulatory in nature. The interviews have been open and explorative, but structured with the aim to facilitate a categorization and benchmarking across countries.

No analysis has been made in a country without an ESCO association, as ESCO associations have been the point of entry for the analysis. This initial analysis has no data from the former and thus cannot estimate the significance of ESCO Association present as an indication of barriers to ESCO operation.

The focus is on regulations, because these are the ones that policy makers can help to address, alleviate and even use actively as instruments in pursuit of emissions reduction objectives through the reduced use of energy. ESCOss are still not well recognized as an industry, nor entrenched in national policies - or if they are thriving, but in many places, they still struggle to find sufficient foothold.