Conto Termico 3.0: booking system confirmed for public administrations

Booking stays: reopening expected

Booking (art. 14, paragraph 2, letter b, of DM 7 August 2025) allows a public administration to apply for the incentive before the works. The application can be submitted on the basis of an energy audit and an act committing the body to carry out at least one of the measures identified, of an energy performance contract (EPC) with an ESCO, or of the award of the works with the handover report. On acceptance the GSE commits the amount as a ceiling and, when the works start, can pay an advance equal to two fifths of the incentive (half for measures incentivised over two years).

Since 13 April 2026, when the GSE reopened the Portaltermico after the suspension of 3 March, applications are accepted only by direct access, once the works are completed, and bookings are on hold. The corrective decree confirms booking and sets its rules: with its adoption the booking window is expected to reopen shortly.

How resources will be allocated

• Booking keeps a reserved commitment of no more than 50% of that provided for public administrations (new art. 3, paragraph 4). The rule that currently allows bookings to be submitted until the sixtieth day after this allocation is reached is removed.
• Each of the two categories, public administrations and private parties, has a minimum reserve of 300 million euros a year; the rest of the overall ceiling, which remains 900 million euros, is open to both.
• When the commitments of a category reach 600 million euros, or the total reaches 900 million, only direct-access applications are accepted for the following 60 days (art. 3, paragraphs 1 and 3).

For 2026, MASE directorial decree no. 72 of 10 April allocated 450 million euros to public administrations and 450 million to private parties.

Who is entitled to the 100% incentive

As a rule the incentive covers up to 65% of eligible costs (art. 11, paragraph 1, of the DM). Art. 11, paragraph 2, and the GSE implementing rules (sections 4.2 and 12.11) raise coverage to 100%, always within the caps per unit of power and surface, for:

• buildings owned by Municipalities with up to 15.000 inhabitants, used by the Municipality itself or by third parties not attributable to businesses for public and social activities and services of collective interest: sports facilities, theatres, museums, schools, libraries, nurseries, social services;
• public buildings used as schools, whatever the owning body and with no population threshold; universities are excluded;
• public buildings of hospitals and other healthcare facilities of the National Health Service, including residential, assistance, care or in-patient facilities, Community Hospitals and Community Houses (art. 48-ter of DL 104/2020).

The corrective decree keeps 100% for small Municipalities only for the first intervention: for subsequent ones coverage falls to 80%. For schools and public healthcare facilities 100% is confirmed. Applications submitted until the corrective decree enters into force, bookings included, keep 100%.

Other changes for public administrations

• Payment: with direct access the incentive is paid in a single instalment only up to 50.000 euros; above this threshold it is paid in annual instalments, also to public administrations.
• Public bodies carrying out economic activities: 45 days after entry into force, only measures meeting the conditions of Title V of the DM, dedicated to businesses, are eligible; for works already started the preliminary application must be submitted within the same deadline, on pain of inadmissibility.
• ESCOs and partnership: ESCOs are included among the private parties public administrations can use in public-private partnerships; in bookings based on an audit and a commitment act it is no longer necessary to attach the standard EPC contract template.
• Collection agent: the GSE will be able to recover sums unduly received also from the agent appointed to collect the incentive, jointly liable with the beneficiary within the amounts collected.
• Energy audit and APE: the energy audit before the intervention and the energy performance certificate (APE) after it become mandatory also for window replacement and solar shading; today these measures require them only on buildings with heating systems of at least 200 kW.
• Technical requirements: for biomass stoves and fireplace inserts the requirement of efficiency above 85% is removed, environmental requirements remain and the bands of the particulate-emission coefficient change; for shading and solar control the total solar energy transmittance refers to UNI/TR 12003 and is calculated according to UNI EN 410; for lighting the photometric characteristics, LED modules included, must be verified by ISO/IEC 17025 accredited laboratories.

Requests from Regions and local authorities

Regions, ANCI and UPI gave a favourable opinion with non-binding observations: among them, a guaranteed minimum of 200 million euros for public-sector bookings, the possibility of submitting bookings until the thirtieth day after the allocation is reached (sixty for 2026), 100% for small Municipalities for one intervention per year and the removal of the 50.000 euro threshold for single-instalment payment. The final text will show which proposals have been accepted.

How to prepare

To submit a booking when the window reopens, an energy audit and the body’s commitment act are needed, or an EPC contract or the award of the works. VEE S.r.l. assists public administrations from the energy audit to the application to the GSE: in 2026 the ten applications submitted for five Piedmont Municipalities were all accepted, for 5,64 million euros of incentives.