Energy performance contracting(EPC)has emerged as a useful project financ-ing and delivery tool for building retrofits,particularly among building owner-ships which have experienced reduced funding for capital project...Energy performance contracting(EPC)has emerged as a useful project financ-ing and delivery tool for building retrofits,particularly among building owner-ships which have experienced reduced funding for capital projects.Through EPC,a contractor(called the EPC contractor or the energy service company)guaran-tees minimum energy savings performance and enables the building owner to finance the project using utility savings over the length of the project(which is typically 12-15 years,or longer).Despite its growing use,there is a dearth of lit-erature regarding a contractor’s risks related to the delivery and execution of EPC building retrofits.This is particularly important as the performance guarantee effec-tively transfers project performance risk from the owner to the EPC contractor.This research proposes a project factors-based risk framework for EPC building retrofits,initially developed through a comprehensive review of relevant literature and project documents and refined through the elicited expertise of 19 highly expe-rienced EPC contracting professionals.A Delphi technique-based expertise elici-tation strategy was used to confirm the findings of the a priori(literature-based)framework and provide additional analysis related to risk causes and control mea-sures as well as relative risk importance.This information was used to construct a refined risk framework which provides insight into the lengthy project performance period during the earliest phases of the project’s life cycle.This has the advantage of providing rapid screening of the project factors that can potentially lead to the greatest project performance risks.展开更多
文摘Energy performance contracting(EPC)has emerged as a useful project financ-ing and delivery tool for building retrofits,particularly among building owner-ships which have experienced reduced funding for capital projects.Through EPC,a contractor(called the EPC contractor or the energy service company)guaran-tees minimum energy savings performance and enables the building owner to finance the project using utility savings over the length of the project(which is typically 12-15 years,or longer).Despite its growing use,there is a dearth of lit-erature regarding a contractor’s risks related to the delivery and execution of EPC building retrofits.This is particularly important as the performance guarantee effec-tively transfers project performance risk from the owner to the EPC contractor.This research proposes a project factors-based risk framework for EPC building retrofits,initially developed through a comprehensive review of relevant literature and project documents and refined through the elicited expertise of 19 highly expe-rienced EPC contracting professionals.A Delphi technique-based expertise elici-tation strategy was used to confirm the findings of the a priori(literature-based)framework and provide additional analysis related to risk causes and control mea-sures as well as relative risk importance.This information was used to construct a refined risk framework which provides insight into the lengthy project performance period during the earliest phases of the project’s life cycle.This has the advantage of providing rapid screening of the project factors that can potentially lead to the greatest project performance risks.
