Turnkey Retrofit > Focus on… Operene

Focus on… Operene

Operene, launched in 2014, is a proven one-stop-shop service for renovating multi-family housing, covering all renovation steps from the financial feasibility study to the coordination of a group of local companies to conduct the works (more than 40 SMEs committed to conduct the renovations), guaranteeing actual energy performance and impacts, up to energy performance contracting when requested by the client.

With over 4000 dwelling renovations to date involving 40M€ of investment, 80% of financial feasibility proposals submitted by Operene resulted in actual renovation works.

Operene service targets multi-family apartment buildings in the private sector and for social housing.

  • Homeowners are rarely Operene customers, the targeted customer is the coownership trustee (COT) representing the building co-owners. COT technical background is usually low, and the decision-making process is complex (all decisions must be voted at the qualified majority).
  • Operene has no digital platform so far and its operational area is limited to the Rhone-Alpes region in France but a deployment outside this region is under investigation.

How does it work?

  • Operene works as a temporary consortium coordinator for building companies (mainly SMEs) all along the refurbishment project lifetime (from diagnosis to commissioning). This consortium can thus apply for larger refurbishment projects where competition between building players is more limited.
  • When the consortium wins the bid, OPERENE is responsible for the on-site work coordination: construction-site supervision, work planning, financial follow-up and is acting as the main representative of the consortium.
  • OPERENE can also offer consulting services (financial simulations, elaboration of quality management plan on energy performance, on-site energy performance tests) either in-house or within a design consortium (architects, engineers). For consulting services, OPERENE charges a fix fee (depending of the building size) while for a temporary consortium coordination, OPERENE incomes represent a few percent of the total project cost.
  • Operene gets its main revenues from a “project management support” dedicated “work package” (in French “lot de maîtrise d’oeuvre”) in each new renovation project
  • Covered energy improvements are:
    • the building envelope,
    • the energy equipment (heating, cooling, ventilation),
    • hot water systems
    • and renewable energies when relevant (e.g. photovoltaic, solar thermal, etc.).