Improving Organisational And Economic Mechanisms For Sustainable Energy Efficiency Gains In Service Enterprises On The Basis Of Digital Transformation And Innovative Management Technologies

Service enterprises such as hotels, retail outlets and restaurants account for a growing share of electricity demand in emerging economies, yet energy efficiency in this segment is usually pursued through isolated equipment replacements rather than through a managed, continuously improving system. This article develops and tests an improved organisational and economic mechanism that integrates an ISO 50001-based energy management system, digital monitoring and control technologies, a cost-of-saved-energy decision rule and energy performance contracting. The mechanism is applied to an illustrative portfolio of three service enterprises in Uzbekistan with a combined baseline consumption of 4,170 MWh per year, evaluated at the electricity tariff for legal entities of 1,100 soums per kWh in force from 1 June 2026. Seven measures reduce consumption by 1,490.9 MWh, or 35.8%, require 4,860 million soums of investment, pay back in 3.3 years on average and generate a net present value of 2,552.8 million soums at a 16% discount rate. Digital and managerial measures deliver 39.4% of total savings. A marginal cost curve shows that all measures have a levelised cost of saved energy below the tariff, ranging from 410 to 1,035 soums per kWh, while the portfolio remains profitable down to a tariff of 754 soums per kWh. An energy performance contract under which a service company retains 75% of verified savings for 10 years yields the investor an internal rate of return of 17.8% and leaves the client 410 million soums per year from the first year without capital outlay. The results show that sustainable efficiency gains depend less on individual technologies than on combining measurement, management routines and financing in one mechanism.