EU has adopted a new Energy Efficiency Directive establishing more measures to be implemented both in order to reduce energy consumption and to eliminate climate changes. This is clear both in the Europe 2020 Strategy, (gas emission reduction is intended by 20%, even by 30%, energy consumption reduction by 20%) and in the 2014-2020 Budget which is developed in the energy sector, in accordance with these objectives. Investments necessary for the energy efficiency reach EUR 125 Billion / year, and this amount should be mostly covered by private investors.
At the European level, the EU budget will act as an incentive for national expenditure and will offer the private sector a long-term predictability. The most promising fields include building rehabilitation, innovation in transports and development of new technologies.
Likewise, investments necessary for the completion of the energy network amount to EUR 200 Billion, EU budget UE allocating EUR 9.1 Billion until 2020.
Under the circumstances, at the end of June, EC proposed a new energy efficiency Directive on to the completion of the objective of energy consumption reduction by 20 percent, which means 368 Million tonne in 2020 compared to the 1842 Million tonne, estimation made for 2020, in case the situation continues.
“Our proposal aims at making the way we use energy in our daily life more efficient and at helping citizens, public authorities and the industry to better manage their energy consumption, which should also lead to a reduced energy bill. It also creates an important potential for new jobs throughout the EU”, said Günther Oettinger, European Commissioner responsible for Energy.
In July, EC also launched the European Energy Efficiency Fund (EEE-F) which will initially grant a financing of EUR 265 Million and other EUR 20 Million will be available as subsidies for project development services (technical assistance). With the new Directive, the Commission proposes 6 ambitious measures which, when implemented, will contribute to the increase of energy efficiency. First of all, each member state must introduce energy saving schemes. It will be mandatory for energy distributors or retail energy sales companies to save every year 1.5 % of their energy sales, by volume, through the implementation of energy efficiency measures.
Likewise, public bodies will have to push for the market uptake of energy efficient products and services through legal obligations.
For the industrial sector, incentives are suggested for SMEs to undergo energy audits and disseminate best practices while the large companies will have to make an audit of their energy consumption in order to facilitate the identification of the reduction potential of energy consumption.
Energy production will be monitored in terms of efficiency levels of new energy generation capacities and for energy transmission and distribution, achieving efficiency gains is aimed at by ensuring that national energy regulators take into account energy efficiency criteria.
Last but not least, major energy savings will have to offer easy and free-of-charge access to data on real-time and historical energy consumption.
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