The City of Johannesburg is set to become the first organisation in sub-Saharan Africa to sign an energy performance contract (EPC), reported nongovernmental organisation the Clinton Climate Initiative (CCI) city director for the Johannesburg area John Less.

Speaking at the US Trade and Development Agency energy efficient building solutions workshop, Less said that, while EPCs were common practice in the US and Europe, they had not yet been used in South Africa and it was commendable that a government organisation had taken steps to encourage their use in South Africa.

He said that the CCI had been in discussions with the City of Johannesburg for a number of months about the possibility of signing an EPC and there had been positive indications that an agreement would be reached soon.

EPCs use money saved on energy and 
operating costs to fund building improvements, 
including investment in further energy effi
ciency measures. 
The process is often outsourced to performance management contractors.

The concept of EPCs is particularly relevant to the South African commercial building sector as it is designed around the retrofitting of existing buildings. 
While they can be used for new buildings, it is rarely done, and EPCs are considered to 
be more effective in existing buildings.

The Alliance to Save Energy senior programme manager Alexander Filippov said that there was significant saving potential in the building and industrial sectors and noted that the building sector accounted for about half of the total energy consumption in the US.

Increasing the energy efficiency measures in buildings was significant, and EPCs could attend to the process holistically when management was outsourced and sustained over a number of years, said Less.

Filippov said that worldwide there were a number of barriers to the introduction of 
energy efficiency measures at municipal level. These included insufficient technical skills in municipalities, a lack of political will and a lack of public awareness. 
Interest in EPCs by government organisations such as the City of Johannesburg was therefore encouraging.

Less said that there had been an increase in pressure from blue-chip tenants for property owners to introduce energy efficiency measures into their rental properties. 
He added that it was encouraging that, in South Africa, government organisations were among the most assertive of these tenants and were setting a positive example for energy efficiency retrofitting in the building sector.

In Australia, government has strict criteria 
for renting property based on the Green Building Council of Australia’s Green Star rating system and Less indicated that South Africa had the opportunity to follow Australia’s example.

To subscribe to Engineering News's print magazine email subscriptions@creamermedia.co.za or buy now.