Abstract
This research critically examines risks and risk management strategies for optimising energy efficiency projects, specifically focusing on the building sector. As global energy demand rises sharply due to population growth, practical energy efficiency measures are increasingly vital. However, challenges such as inaccurate energy savings projections and poor operational performance hinder these initiatives. Therefore, there is a need to implement comprehensive risk management practices to meet energy-saving objectives. This study followed the Systematic Literature Review approach using the SCOPUS database to find peer-reviewed articles; this research applied the inclusion/exclusion criteria based on the Population-Intervention-Comparison-Outcomes framework. The final analysis and data synthesis used thematic and Pareto analysis to enumerate risks occurring in energy efficiency projects and risk mitigation strategies to improve energy projections, operational costs and financial savings. The Pareto analysis demonstrated that the four most crucial knowledge areas for building energy optimisation are Energy Efficiency, Renewable Energy, Cybersecurity, and Stakeholders’ management. Further, Technical and operational risks account for most risks occurring in energy efficiency projects in the building sector, thus requiring attention. This dissertation proposed a risk mitigation framework for energy practitioners to implement during building energy efficiency projects.