Super Esco Partnership in Energy Efficiency

In both the EU and the Turkish National Green Deal action plan, 2 solutions to climate change stand out: energy efficiency and renewable energy. When it comes to "energy transformation", usually renewable energy comes to mind. But, as South Marmara Development Agency (SMDA), we include energy efficiency in our activities with the perspective that the greenest energy is the one that has never been produced before. Therefore, we have designed two separate models related to energy efficiency, one for grant and the other for investment.

SMDA, aims to reduce the energy consumed by industrial enterprises without changing the amount and quality of production, in other words, to increase their environmentally friendly competitive advantage with less carbon emissions with the decrease in input costs provided by energy efficiency. It has been working on the subject since 2020. The first step in achieving this goal is to conduct energy efficiency reports. After their establishment in Türkiye, most of the development agency budgets have been based on the grants they distribute in their regions. These grants were realized with the support tools specified in the legislation. Grant programs, which were previously carried out only within a certain framework in the form of Financial and Technical Support, were subject to Article 7 of the Project and Activity Support Regulation. After the update made in the article, the agencies have been provided with the opportunity to carry out grant programs with the support mechanisms to be designed by themselves. In this context, GMKA, which started its energy efficiency studies in 2020, took advantage of this opportunity by designing the Energy Efficiency Mentoring Program. With the grant program, 75% of the energy efficiency report preparation costs of industrial enterprises in Balıkesir and Çanakkale provinces were covered as grants between 2021-2023.

SMDA has decided to invest instead of grants in order to implement the energy efficiency investment projects that emerged as a result of the reports prepared. With the research conducted, it has been concluded that the Super Esco Business Model, which has not yet been implemented in Türkiye but is increasing rapidly in the world and is based on public-private sector cooperation, is the most effective tool in energy efficiency investments. In accordance with the market conditions it has obtained, it designed a model specific to Türkiye and this model was approved by the ministry in July 2023. The model, in which the Agency will perform the Super Esco function, will be carried out in two phases with the announced Call for Resources. In the first stage, Esco(s), which will be both the investment partner and the actor that will carry out the technical consultancy processes, will be determined in the model. In the second stage, the Agency will determine the projects to be invested in energy efficiency together with the Esco(s) with which it has signed a contract.

SMDA thinks that at the Wind Europe Event event, it will be able to find Super Esco actors to be its investment partner in financing for the model planned to be implemented in 2024.