Energy Performance Contracts (EPC) & ESCOs5 / 12
EPC Structure & ESCO Model
ESCO funds project; is paid from energy savings; customer takes no capex risk.
10 min read · Jacob Willis, Net Zero Lead · Last reviewed July 2026
The energy performance contract is one of the most powerful financing mechanisms in energy management. It lets an organisation deliver energy savings with no upfront capital and little risk, by transferring both to a specialist provider paid from the savings themselves.
In this lesson
- 01The core idea
- 02The ESCO
- 03How an EPC works
- 04Guaranteed savings versus shared savings
- 05The appeal
- 06The central role of M&V
- 07The trade-offs
- 08Sources and further reading