In the broader sense energy services can be seen as an effective tool for lowering energy demands. The EU also sees this issue in a similar light and they have prepared the background material for implementing the use of these services into the legislative systems of the individual EU Member States. In the area of energy services we have long-term experiences gained from many domestic and foreign projects. Our experts first gained experience in energy services at the start of the 1990’s in the USA, where these services are applied extensively.

Energy Performance Contracting (EPC) represents the method an Energy Service Company (ESCO) offers its services with the aim of reducing energy consumption and the subsequent costs in the customer’s building. In the case of EPC the main source of paying for energy saving measures are the actual savings on energy consumption (or running an energy system) achieved when fulfilling the contract between the supplier and the customer.

The length and wording of the contract depend on specific conditions such as technical (the level of saving), economic (the stability of the external environment and the subject concerned, the amount of certain financial and economic indicators – interest rates, level of price increases, etc.) and legal (present contracts with energy suppliers, the customer’s legal status). The financial inputs are provided by another subject (financial institutions).

Energy contracting (EC) is aimed at the efficient use of primary energy and reducing costs when producing or transforming energy. The main source of payment during an EC is the energy supplies for which an arrangement is made on the price of the supply and the energy used in the technical units. Once again financing is the concern of another subject.

At the start of the nineties SEVEn was the first consultancy in the Czech market to systematically promote the use of EPC. It held seminars and courses and was present at the birth of the first projects, it brought experiences from abroad (primarily from the USA) and applied tried and tested foreign approaches to the Czech conditions.

Over the last fifteen years it has taken part in realising dozens of projects for using energy services. These were not only projects of directly supplying EPC support services to the customer, but also projects that had a positive effect on the Czech market with energy services. It has compiled many studies on this, published the first Czech book on EPC and has realised targeted training for firms and potential energy service customers.

Recently it has been specialising in organising selection procedures for supplying energy services and preparing suitable EPC contracts for customers that buy energy services.

Currently SEVEn is taking part in European projects to disseminate EPC experiences to other countries.

In 2005 SEVEn won the first international competition “European Energy Services Prize”. The competition is organised by the Berlin Energy Agency under the auspices of the German Ministry of Environment and with the support of the European Commissioner for Energy. SEVEn was assessed in the category “Best Supporter of Energy Services” which evaluated the level of contributing to the overall support of the market, overcoming obstacles to further development and specific results attained. This was the first prize of its kind in the Czech Republic.