The assessment of the Member States National Energy Efficiency Action plans: will the EU reach the 2020 target?

In the European Union (EU) there is a target to reduce energy consumption by 20% by 2020. The target has been introduced in EU legislation through the-so called Energy Efficiency Directive (EED), which calls for Member States to set energy efficiency targets at national level. The national targets are of indicative (rather than legally binding) nature due to the complexity of defining them (e.g. apportioning the EU target to individual MSs, based on possible criteria such as energy efficiency potential, economic capabilities, etc.). The best way to ensure that MSs achieve their targets and contribute to the achievement of the EU target is therefore through careful monitoring of the energy savings achieved by MSs and implementation of national energy efficiency policies. The EED introduces a number of policies and measures MSs have to adopt such as Energy Efficiency Obligation Schemes (EEOSs), mandatory energy audits, renovation roadmaps, metering and billing, etc. Under the EED MSs have to present a National Energy Efficiency Action Plan (NEEAP) every three years (the first NEEAPs were introduced in 2007 under the previous Energy Services Directive). The paper presents the analysis of the 2014 NEEAPs. It shows the importance of good and complete NEEAPs and argues that a strategic NEEAP, with detailed assessment of the energy savings, is an important contribution to meeting the MS’ target and to predict the energy consumption trajectory towards the achievement of the EU 2020 target. The paper shows the main conclusions from the NEEAP 2014 assessment, identifying best practice policies and gaps. The European experience with energy saving targets, NEEAPs, evaluation of energy savings induced policies is a useful experience also for countries outside Europe.

BERTOLDI Paolo;  ECONOMIDOU Marina; 

2018-09-26

IEPPEC

JRC101003

http://www.ieppec.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/Paper-Bertoldi-2.pdf,    https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC101003,