Energy efficiency indicators and methodology for evaluation of energy performance and retained savings

Energy efficiency is presently one of the most important topics on the agenda of European Commission and Romanian Government related to energy field. The national action plan for energy efficiency is targeting buildings, transport and distribution systems, manufacturing and industrial systems for investments and measures to increase the energy performance. A special attention is paid to the legal and financial framework needed for implementation of energy efficiency projects; new financing facilities such as energy performance contracting and the ESCo (Energy Services Company) type projects implementation are promoted as an alternative to the classic financing model using traditional lending practices. For the successful implementation of these facilities, it is extremely important having the certainty of future cash-flow generated by project based on transparent and reliable evaluation of savings. The paper presents a study related to a simple, transparent and reliable methodology for the evaluation of energy performance and savings level considering measurements and calculation for the baseline scenario and post-implementation situation. The proposed methodology includes a short list of energy efficiency indicators, relevant for system's performance evaluation, and describes actual tools, methods and calculations to be used for savings evaluations.