Good practice:

Contribution to technical expenses incurred by SMEs to implement EE measures

Tuscany Region issued 2 calls in 2017 to incentivize enterprises’ energy audit aimed at investments in energy efficiency (EE) of buildings.
The energy audit provides the basis for EE projects and increases the awareness of SMEs on EE and on how this can be improved with advantages in environmental & economic terms.
There is significant costs for an SME in a EE audit. That’s why providing an incentive can stimulate SMEs to conduct and reduce energy consumption.
The aim of the tenders is to facilitate EE actions and production from renewable energy sources by providing a non-repayable grant not only for eligible costs for material investments (installation and realization of equipment, machinery, but also for technical expenses such as design, construction management, safety, plant testing and certification, energy performance certificates.
The energy audit must be signed by an independent qualified technician, external to the company, and contains the study of energy consumption over the last 3 years.
The main stakeholders involved are the Trade Category Associations who promoted the tenders by carrying out initiatives and workshops throughout the region in cooperation with Tuscany Region who supported SMEs in preparing the documentation required by tenders.
The beneficiaries of the practice are SMEs, in the industry, crafts, cooperation, tourism, trade, services and culture sectors.

The financial resources made available by Tuscany Region were € 12.039.945.
The resources covering energy audits and other technical expenses were € 133.241.
The average contribution per energy audit was 2.719 €.
3 people by Tuscany Region were required to manage the calls.

49 actions were incentivized with energy audit and another 100 with technical expenses respect to 190 totals.
The average contribution for technical expenses respect to eligible technical expenses was 15%.
3,342 toe was the energy saving achieved.
4,769 ton was the CO2eq emissions avoided.
The calls admit as a contribution also retroactive technical costs, before the date of publication of the calls, to encourage the realization of audits even in the absence of an open call.

The costs of interventions for the installation of equipment for monitoring energy consumption were not eligible.
It is necessary to provide a greater incentive for SMEs to carry out energy audits also not related to the request for a contribution for investment projects.

For SMEs the costs of energy is not so important, they are also distant to may economic interventions through ERDF. SMEs that participated in the calls and obtained the incentive to carry out the energy audit, gave birth to EE actions that otherwise would not have been carried out.
The incentive to carry out the energy audit has been included directly within the calls for the EE of SMEs and it represents an important tool for implementing regional, national and European policies aimed in the transition to low carbon emissions by SMEs.
The non-repayable grant ensured by the calls included technical expenses, which is more attractive than other benefits.
In order to strengthen the role of energy audits, Tuscany Region checks the project results achieved on the basis of the information provided in the technical reports before and after the intervention, so a baseline was created, and evaluation can demonstrate the improvements made.