25th birthday of Berliner Energieagentur: reliability, trust, responsibility

Michael Geissler, who has been the CEO of the Berliner Energieagentur since 1997 and is holding the position of Secretary General of FEDARENE since the year 2000, also welcomed the governing mayor of Berlin Michael Müller.

In his welcoming speech, Michael Müller said: “The BEA is an experienced pioneer in decentralised energy generation for 65 landlord-to-tenant electricity supply projects with combined heat and power systems and photovoltaic installations, just like they are installed on the rooftop of the Red Town Hall in Berlin. The expertise of BEA is important for our city not least in the international cooperation with other metropolises. The BEA is an internationally sought-after partner for successful solutions for climate protection”.

This is illustrated by several international collaboration agreements for example with Buenos Aires, Mexico City und most recently with Los Angeles.

As a company in public-private partnership with powerful public and private shareholders – like the federal state of Berlin and the KfW Bankengruppe – the BEA is operating as a service provider for housing industry and the public sector as well as for industrial, commercial and trading companies.

Reliable partner in decentralised energy generation

The history goes back to 1992: on the initiative of the Berlin House of Representatives, the Berliner Energieagentur was founded in view of the looming effects of climate change and a decreasing access to fossil natural resources.

 As a pioneer in decentralised energy supply, the BEA is expanding the use of combined heat and power (CHP) systems as a main technology and provides clients with different contract models and services, currently for more than 80 CHP units. Furthermore, the BEA has been planning, installing and is operating over 50 photovoltaic installations for the generation of environmentally friendly solar power.

In addition, key activities are the development and implementation of modern energy management concepts and strategic consulting for public and private clients in regional, national and international markets. Since the beginning, the BEA has been pioneering in Energy Performance Contracting (EPC) and has exploited energy saving potentials in more than 1,300 public buildings this way. As a partner with expertise in energy efficiency and climate policy, the agency is also offering services for information and motivation campaigns.

Key are long-standing and stable relationships with customers and values such as reliability, trust and responsibility.

Projects with European partners

In a European context, the BEA has worked this year within two projects funded by the European Commission:

• “guarantEE – Building Energy Services in Europe”
• “URBAN LEARNING”

The project guarantEE fosters the use of Energy Performance Contracting in the public and private sector across Europe. It focuses on developing solutions especially for rented facilities and private sector clients.

Within URBAN LEARNING, cities exchanged and worked on improving governance structures for integrative urban energy planning. Besides Berlin, the participating cities were Paris, Amsterdam, Stockholm, Vienna, Warsaw, Zaanstad and Zagreb.