導入碳稅之能源技術服務業合約模式探討—以某離島置換LED路燈為例

Abstract

近年來，各國開始重視環保與氣候變遷等議題；同時，能源價格不斷上漲，對於包括我國在內天然能源匱乏的國家造成極大負擔，在綠色能源尚未能被廣泛運用的情況下，政府積極推動節能減碳政策。因應以上現況，「能源技術服務公司」 (Energy Service Company, ESCO) 衍生而出，它是提供能源用戶或政府單位改善能源使用效率的新型產業，主要係透過具有專業技術人員的能源技術公司與能源用戶或政府單位簽訂節能績效合約 (Energy Savings Performance Contract, ESPC)，執行節能改善專案，將因節能所須付出之改善成本透過節能效益來補償。如何依據能源用戶現況，選擇合適的節能合約，是一項值得探討的課題。本研究依據節能效益分享型合約(Shared Savings Contract)與節能量保證型合約(Guaranteed Savings Contract)兩種常見的節能合約，特別探討政府強制課徵碳稅對能源技術服務公司、能源用戶及他們所簽訂節能合約的影響。因台灣離島的發電成本高於台灣本島，且規模不大，從離島著手進行節能改善示範應為初期可行方式；此外，配合政府近年所推動傳統水銀路燈汰換為LED路燈的計畫，本研究以某離島路燈節能為例，首先考慮建置成本、營運成本、維護費用、碳交易獲利、碳稅課徵成本、政府補助與否等多項因素，接著分析在前述節能效益分享型與節能量保證型合約下的投資報酬率，並分別探討有利於能源技術服務公司、能源用戶、甚至政府本身的各種不同節能合約情境。

Many countries start focusing on issues of environmental protection and climate change in recent years. In the meanwhile, the energy prices began to increase substantially which causes heavy burdens for countries including Taiwan who are lack of natural resources. Green energy thus becomes important. However, before the green energy can be used thoroughly, governments usually set up policies in advance for energy conservation and carbon deduction. In response to this situation, the energy service company (ESCO) has been developed for the purpose of improving energy waste for enterprises or governments. Projects are conducted according to energy savings performance contracts (ESPC) by which the future energy saving can be used to pay back the installation cost of energy efficiency systems through the technical support of ESCOs. How to choose a proper type of contract according to real circumstances of users is a critical issue. In the present research, analyses are carried out based on two commonly applied energy saving contracts named ‘shared savings contract’ and ‘guaranteed savings contract’. Carbon tax is taken into consideration in particular to investigate its influence on the contract. As the cost of power generation on off-shore islands is higher than that of Taiwan itself, and the scope of off-shore islands is also relative small. It would be reasonable to launch energy saving programs for initial experiments. Beside, in order to respond to the government’s project to replace traditional mercury-containing streetlights with LED streetlights, this thesis takes the replacing mercury-containing streetlights with LED streetlights on one of Taiwan’s off-shore island as an example. We first consider the cost and profit of construction, operation, maintenance of LED streetlights, and carbon trading, carbon tax, government’s grant-in-aid and other factors. Secondly, we analyze two kinds of performance contracts described above respectively to realize their payback periods and returns on investment. And then, we consider the perspective of ESCO, energy consumer, and government, respectively, to find out the appropriate energy saving business model and policies which benefit for each of themselves.