Introduction: the article is devoted to researching a new contractual structure-energy performance agreement (contract) as an agreement aimed at the rational use of energy resources, the identification of the issues related to the practical implementation of civil law regulations governing the relations on energy saving as a kind of social entrepreneurship. For this purpose, the authors investigate the legal nature of the agreement (contract), the features of forming its conditions and conclusion which, in general, contributes to the extension of its scope in practice. By applying the modern scientific methods, above all, the dialectical method, the method of system analysis, formallogical, historical and logical methods, it became possible to objectively form an opinion of the state of the legislation in the field of the legal regulation of rational use of energy resources by means of such a legal form as the energy performance contract. Results: it is noted that today one of the most important strategic problems of the modern social and energy policy of Russia is the creation of legal, economic and organizational framework for stimulating power savings and increasing energy efficiency. Of particular importance in these conditions is the formation of the legal system in regulating these social relations. It is indicated that an important part in the formation of energy saving should be assigned to the new contractual structure-the energy performace agreement (contract). It is established that in civil law the legal nature and characteristics of energy performance contracts remain unexplored. Conclusions: it is proved that the energy performance contract in its legal nature is an independent civil-law defined contract.

The goal of the work was to identify research and compare methods of portfolio management of energy saving projects and to develop software for optimizing portfolio investments using several methods. The key elements and strategies of creating an effective investment portfolio are considered: diversification, rebalancing, active portfolio management, passive portfolio management. Given the basic principles of investment theory, the task of portfolio investment is to form an investment portfolio with known shares of certain assets to maximize returns and minimize risk. To solve this problem, the method of Harry Markowitz, known as modern portfolio theory, was chosen. This is the theory of financial investment, in which statistical methods are used to make the most profitable risk distribution of the securities portfolio and income valuation, its components are asset valuation, investment decisions, portfolio optimization, evaluation of results. From a mathematical point of view, the problem of forming an optimal portfolio is the problem of optimizing a quadratic function (finding the minimum) with linear constraints on the arguments of the function. Methods of optimization of portfolios of energy saving projects taking into account the specifics of the subject area are analyzed. According to the results of the analysis, the methods of finding the maximum Sharpe’s ratio and the minimum volatility from randomly generated portfolios were chosen. A software application has been developed that allows you to download data, generate random portfolios and optimize them with selected methods. A graphical display of portfolio optimization results has also been implemented. The program was tested on data on shares of energy saving companies. The graphs built by the program allow the operator to better assess the created portfolio of the energy saving project.