The term ‘Energy services’ term makes reference to a series of services about to the development, evaluation and management of the energy supply in several forms. This definition includes the analysis of energy needs, the technical and economic feasibility of interventions linked to energy saving and efficiency; the definition of the financial structure of the project, the realization of intervention for the energetic realization, the management of the service supply.
On 3 July 2008, the "Implementation of the guideline 2006/32/CE about the efficiency of the final uses of the energy and energy services and abrogation of the guideline 93/76/CEE" was published on the Gazzetta Ufficiale (Dlgs 30 may 2008 n.115)
The Directive defines as "energy": "Any kind of energy available on the market, including electricity, natural gas (included liquefied natural gas), the liquefied oil gas, any heat and cold fuel, including district heating and cooling, coal and lignite, peat, diesel fuel (excluding the fuel for aviation and ocean use) and the biomass defined as in the directive 2001/77/Ce, about electricity energy promotion produced by renewable resources". The aim of the directive is the improvement of the mechanisms and incentives of the institutional, financial and law framework, that are able to delete any barriers and existing obstacles in the market in order to achieve more efficient renewable energy uses, and to establish at the same time conditions for developing and promoting an energy services market.
The "energy service" (art. 1, par. 1, point E) is defined as the "material work, utility or advantage coming from the mix of energies with technologies or with operations that use the energy efficiently, and that can include operating and maintaining activities necessary for a service where the supply is provided by a contract and that in normal circumstances it has showed to achieve energy efficient improvements and primary energy savings verifiable and measurable or assessable".
Technically, ESCO means (art 1, par. 1, point I) a "physical or legal person able to provide energy services and/or other measures of energy efficiency improvement through physical installations or in user spaces and, implementing this, it accepts a certain margin of financial risk. The payment of the provided service is based (totally or partially) on the improvement of the energy efficient achieved and other rending criteria previously established".
A further energy service is the "energy rending contract" that implies an agreement between the beneficiary and the provider (usually an ESCO) regarding a measure of energy efficiency improvement, where the payments forehead by investments in this measure are made in function of the level of improvement level of the energy efficiency contractually established.
The energetic certificate is a further piece of news in the energy services field. "This certificate is issued by an independent organization of certification able to affirm the truthfulness of the affirmations by market operators that announce energy savings thanks to measures of improvements of the energy efficiency".
In this scenario, the sector that mainly cares about the implementation of the directive is the public sector, by guaranteeing that the public administrations involved adopt measures and law initiatives and/or voluntary agreements.
In order to promote energy efficiency and to provide energy services, the directive foresees dispositions regarding energy distributors, distribution system administrators and firms selling energy; it also takes into consideration the spreading of information about mechanisms of energy efficiency in the financial and legal framework, dispositions relative to the measurement and to the billing of the energy consume, the establishment of funds and funds mechanisms to finance programs thought for the energy efficiency improvement. These funds must be accessible to the providers, ESCO, independent consultants, and firms of energy sellers and installers.

Bibliography
GAZZETTA UFFICIALE il DLgs 30 maggio 2008.

Editor: Claudio DICEMBRINO
© 2009 ASSONEBB