REDIBA

Renewables and Energy Efficiency Diputación de Barcelona

Program Authority:

Diputacion de Barcelona (Barcelona Provincial Council)

Program Delivery Unit :

REDIBA TA

Summary

REDIBA, which stands for Renewables and Energy Efficiency Diputación de Barcelona, is a project created by the Barcelona Provincial Council (DIBA) to support the local and provincial authorities in the Province of Barcelona carrying out their committed Sustainable Energy Action Plans (SEAP). It started in a setting where the municipalities had the duty to provide basic services, with reduced income, no investment nor borrowing capacity, increasing energy prices and the commitment to carry-out SEAP actions. Its purpose was to identify actions or measures that could generate enough income (e.g. Renewable Energy Resources (RES) production) or enough financial savings (e.g. energy efficiency) to finance the energy saving investments within a reasonable payback period, i.e. sustainable energy actions or measures in the Province of Barcelona at no cost or debt to the municipalities.

A technical assistance unit (REDIBA TA) was set–up to provide technical support and legal advice to municipalities related to the public tendering of energy savings investments in order to achieve their commitment of CO2 emission reduction by means of public-private cooperation (ESCO, i.e. EPC and ESC, renting). In the REDIBA programme the REDIBA TA acts as project marketer, project facilitator, financial advisor and assessor.

It really started in May 2010 after having secured an ELENA (European Local Energy Assistance) grant of 2,0M€, seeking to reach 50M € investments by the end of the programme in June 2014.

It first focused on solar photovoltaic, but had to reinvent itself after a year due to the abolishment of the feed-in tariff scheme for RES in Spain. It realigned its efforts towards energy efficiency and biomass for heating.

At the end of the programme REDIBA got investment applications from 183 out of the 311 municipalities. It supported 108 implemented projects representing around 96M€ of investment and a CO2 reduction of 21,6K tonnes per year.

Documents

Overview

Ownership:

Public

Implementation Model:

Energy Performance Contracting (EPC)

Energy Supply Contracting (ESC)

Operating Services:

Type of Project:

Energy Efficiency (building retrofits)

Energy Efficiency (public lighting)

Renewable Energy

Ambition/Targets:

Up to 35% reduction of energy consumption

Benificiaries:

Public Sector

Funding Vehicle:

Financial Institutions

ESCOs

Property Owner

Financial Instruments:

Scalability of the Model:

High

Development Maturity:

Mature

Financing Model

Model Description

How does it work?

Municipalities seeking to invest in reduction of energy consumption through ESCO Third Party financing can apply for technical and facilitation support from REDIBA TA. Based on a specific questionnaire REDIBA TA performs a technical assistance analysis allowing it to distinguish between viable or non-viable projects. The ELENA grant leverage requirement of x25 (1€ grant must result in 25€ investment) induces to be very strict in the selection and evaluation of projects to whom support will be given.
If a project gets support based on the questionnaire the Mayor of the municipality needs to sign an engagement letter clearly committing to implement the project and invest the necessary amount if the technical and financial feasibility study determines that the project is viable.
From this moment on the project becomes executable and the facilitation of the project by REDIBA TA starts up to the tendering of the project. Each municipality launches its tenders with the assistance of REDIBA TA.
Depending of the type of EPC or ESC contract the chosen ESCO carries out the retrofit works or installs the energy efficiency measures, delivers the service and has carried out the measurement and verification by an external party during the agreed contract or payback period
REDIBA in its role as financial advisor assists municipalities and ESCOs to agree on how the investments will be paid back to the ESCO. Funding of the investments are partially made in a traditional way through bank loans taken up either by the ESCO (almost all of the projects) or by the Municipality , and partially by the ESCO’s own funds. In some cases the municipality received grants or loans from other local authorities or Government Energy Agencies.
REDIBA TA is offering its services to the municipalities for free as a result of the 2,0M € ELENA funding and the 0,6M € funding from Diputación de Barcelona.

Organization and Partnerships

Barcelona Provincial Council: program owner and political initiator, drives the programme delivery unit and supports part of the operating costs of the delivery unit.

REDIBA Technical Assistance Unit: developed the staff, procedures, tools and services for the program. Offer the program delivery unit services: marketer, project facilitation, projects aggregation, financial advice.

European Local Energy Assistance (ELENA): is part of the European Investment Bank’s broader effort to support the EU’s climate and energy policy objectives. This joint EIB-European Commission initiative helps local and regional authorities to prepare energy efficiency or renewable energy projects.

Beneficiaries

Beneficiaries:

Municipalities of the Province of Barcelona

Operational Support:

Projects facilitation through the project delivery unit

Financial Support:

Projects facilitation costs free of charge

Program Delivery Unit

REDIBA TA is the program delivery unit of the Renewables and Energy Efficiency programme of the Barcelona Provincial Council (REDIBA). The programme is being managed by the Local Energy Management Support Division of the Barcelona Provincial Council.

The unit operates as programme marketer, applications assessor, project facilitator and financial advisor.

Its core activities include:

Development of transverse instruments such as technical models for PV installation, ESCO models for public lighting and biomass heat generation or cogeneration, renting models for EE or RES and EPC models, market studies, energy efficiency measures studies, evaluations of actions and measures of SEAPs drafted by the Provincial council.
Facilitation, including technical (feasibility studies) and legal advice (call for tender templates) to the municipalities and project management of the implementation of the EE and RES projects.
Financial advice and assistance in the search of financing, contacts with financial institutions and investment funds
Communication, capacity building and networking

To assure the working of the delivery unit funds of a total amount of 2,6M € have been made available for the period 2010-2014. Of this total funding amount 2,0M € has been provided by ELENA (European Local Energy Assistance run by the EIB) and 0,6M € by the Barcelona Provincial Council.

From 2010 to 2014 an amount of 2,08M € has been spent on external advice and studies. Approximately 586K€ was the cost of the direct staff members.

Program Delivery Unit Box

Legal Structure:

None

Shareholders:

N/A

Staff Requirements:

Less than 10 full time employee

Operational Costs:

Less than 10 million EUR

Impact on Public Balance Sheet:

Low

Financial Details

Funding Mechanism

Delivery Unit Funding:

REDIBA TA has been funded by ELENA (2,0M €) and the Barcelona Provincial Council (0,6M €)

Projects Funding:

Projects are mostly being funded by the ESCOs and sometimes by the municipalities’ own funds

Results

Today REDIBA has achieved the following:

108 projects executed
96 M € achieved capital investment
52,2 GWh/year energy savings
21,6K tonnes CO2 saved/year
312 applications from 183 municipalities (out of 311)

Contacts

Diputación de Barcelona

Sección de Soporte a la Gestión Energética Local

Edifici del Rellotge, 2a planta

Comte d’Urgell, 187

08036 Barcelona

Telephone:

934 022 485

Fax:

934 022 493

E-Mail:

gs.media@diba.cat

Website:

http://www.diba.cat/mediambient

Sources

http://www.diba.cat/mediambient
de Sárraga Mateo Francesc, REDIBA- ELENA project. Barcelona province’s instrument to implement SEAPs, 12th Iucnael Colloquium 2014, 30 June 2014 – 5 July 2014
Vendrell Roca Albert and Martínez de Foix Romance Blanca, La promoción de las inversiones en eficiencia energética en el alumbrado público en los ayuntamientos de la provincia de barcelona. Eel proyecto rediba (Eficiencia energética y renovables Diputación de Barcelona), XXXIX Simposium Nacional de alumbrado Mataró, 22 May 2013 - 25 May 2013
Vendrell Roca Albert, La promoción de las inversiones en eficiencia energética y renovables en los Ayuntamientos de laprovincia de Barcelona. Primeros resultados. El proyecto Rediba (Eficiencia energética y renovables Diputación de Barcelona), Congress Conama 2012.
Vendrell Roca Albert, European Local ENergy Assistance –experiences in project implementation, International Conference-Together for a green, energy sustainable Europe, Zagreb, 15 May 2013
Vendrell Roca Albert, REDIBA (Renewables and energy efficiency in Barcelona Province), Innovative financing for energy efficiency and renewables. Feedback from successful projects, 8 October 2014
Vendrell Roca Albert, REDIBA-ELENA. How to implement energy efficiency investments when public funds are scarce- Experiences from Barcelona province, 15 November 2013
Verdaguer Espaulella Josep, ELENA initiative in Barcelona: REDIBA results, Mayors in Action 2nd centralized training for Covenant of Mayors Coordinators and Supporters, 2 October 2014
Learning from ELENA-REDIBA in Spain: Eur 100 million investment in EE & RES. How ingenuity allowed Barcelona Province’s sustainable energy efforts to succeed in the face of economic recession, article published on ManagEnergy website: http://managenergy.net/financial/articles/102#.ViYWQX7hCM8
Recursos d’implantació. Accions de sostenibilitat energètica, published by Diputació de Barcelona, Direcció de Comunicació, no date.
REDIBA fact sheet, European Investment Bank, 04 May 2010.
Suport a la implantació d'accions de sostenibilitat energètica, Diputació Barcelona, 20 April 2010

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