On October 26, Edith Bayer participated in an event organized by the Polish National Fund for Environmental Protection and Water Management (NFOSiGW), “Liberalizacja rynku I optymalizacja zużycia energii” (Market liberalization and optimizing energy use). The event focused on opportunities for energy savings in the public sector. Specifically, participants discussed the opportunities that group purchase agreements can provide for public entities to cut their energy bills. As more and more public entities consider group energy purchases, there is an additional opportunity to realize even greater financial savings by investigating ways to save energy. While the savings from negotiating lower bills through group energy purchases are short-lived, energy efficiency can generate significant financial savings over time while at the same time upgrading and improving the comfort of public facilities. Ms. Bayer presented a brief overview of the US experience with Energy Service Companies (ESCOs) in the public sector, and focused in particular on how the ESCO model can help public authorities pay for energy savings over time while realizing immediate bill savings.