In order to define the best available systems to guarantee the quality of energy services (suppliers’ technical skills, good price/quality ratio, etc) Partners will collect and analyse existing systems of quality guarantee from all EU Member Countries .With these data, and through local pilot applications to be tested, the Consortium will then work towards the proposal of a common EU scheme of energy service quality guarantee.

Personnel of SMEs associations and Chambers of Commerce will be trained in order to diffuse and implement the successful systems of quality guarantee identified and adopted.

In the present market the citizen has got no certainties in this sense: this uncertainty causes, at best, the loss of interest and consequent exit from the market by many potential customers; at worst, final consumers will realize that they did expensive investments in products with scarce performance and low efficiency, without an adequate assistance through the time. This would lead to a decrease of the demand, as the actual experience of customers would be bad.

It is than evident that a scheme of guarantees about the reliability of the service becomes a strategic tool for enterprises and, on the other hand, an element of confidence for final consumers.

This scheme must guarantee some essential requisites, as:

•  professional and technical skills and know-how by the supplier (entrepreneur);
• short delivery time and qualified assistance before and after the sale;
• adequate prices in line with the market;
• financial guarantees and grants offered by credit institutes;
• service quality guarantees offered by consumers’ associations and controlling bodies;
• other tools to be defined within the Prometheus project, starting from actual local realities.