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News
Background
Practical Information
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Energy Community – Commission calls for reforms
to boost investments
The European Commission
welcomes the achievements of the Energy
Community but warns about the risks of not
addressing outstanding shortcomings. A report
released today calls for a radical change of
attitude to bring about market reforms in the
Energy Community countries – Albania, Bosnia and
Herzegovina, Croatia, Kosovo (under UNSCR
1244/99), the former Yugoslav Republic of
Macedonia, the Republic of Moldova, Montenegro,
Serbia and Ukraine. These reforms are needed to
allow free competition and attract investments
in ageing electricity networks and gas
pipelines.
The Energy Community faces
paramount investment challenges. In the coming
years a number of existing power plants will
require replacement or rehabilitation,
electricity networks and gas infrastructures
need modernisation and further development.
Strong energy regulatory authorities are needed,
with enough powers, resources and independence
to ensure non-discrimination, effective
competition and efficient operation of the
energy market. Energy efficiency and
environmental standards have to be fully
applied. So far unexploited renewable energy
potential should be put in use. [full
text]
More Information:
Energy
Community report![Top Top](http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/energy/newsletter/dg/images/fleche-top.gif) |
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European Energy Efficiency
Plan: Commission gears up for more savings with
renovation and smart meters
The European Commission
adopted this week a plan for saving more energy
through concrete measures. Energy efficiency is
a key tool for strengthening Europe's
competitiveness and reduces energy dependence,
while decreasing the level of emissions. The set
of measures proposed aims at creating
substantial benefits for households, businesses
and public authorities: it should transform our
daily lives and generate financial savings of up
to €1000 per household every year. It should
improve the EU's industrial competitiveness with
a potential for the creation of up to 2 million
jobs.
[full
text]
More Information:
Energy
Efficiency Plan![Top Top](http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/energy/newsletter/dg/images/fleche-top.gif)
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New impetus for internal market: Agency for the
Cooperation of Energy Regulators takes up
operations in Slovenia
Energy Commissioner Oettinger
and Prime Minister of Slovenia Borut Pahor
inaugurated on 3 March the Agency for the
Cooperation of Energy Regulators (ACER) in
Ljubljana, Slovenia. ACER will help removing
technical obstacles to cross-border energy
trade, will coordinate activities of national
energy regulators and will help solving possible
conflicts between them. This will help
increasing competition, ensuring fair prices for
both consumers and companies. The opening of the
agency coincided with the coming into force of
the third energy package on internal market.
[full
text]
More Information:
ACER website![Top Top](http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/energy/newsletter/dg/images/fleche-top.gif) |
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Commissioner Oettinger attends inauguration of
Italian CCS pilot plant
On 1 March Commissioner Oettinger gave a speech
at the inauguration of the Brindisi CO2 capture
and storage (CCS) pilot plant in Italy. Brindisi
is closely linked to the Porto Tolle power
plant, which receives funding under the European
Energy Programme for Recovery (EEPR). This
capture pilot, using post-combustion technology,
represents the first step towards demonstrating
CCS capture on an industrial scale at the new
Porto Tolle power plant. CCS is integral to the
portfolio of climate change mitigation
technologies proposed by the European
Commission, alongside energy efficiency,
renewable energies and smart electricity grids.
More Information
on the plant
![Top Top](http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/energy/newsletter/dg/images/fleche-top.gif)
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Background
Questions & Answers: The Commission's new
Energy Efficiency Plan
What is at stake?
Energy savings is
one of the most cost effective ways to enhance
security of energy supply, and to reduce
emissions of greenhouse gas and other
pollutants. This is why in 2007, the EU has set
itself a target for saving 20 percent of its
energy consumption by 2020.
The 20% objective translates into a saving of
368 million tons of oil equivalent (Mtoe) by
2020 compared to projected consumption in that
year of 1842 Mtoe. This needs to be achieved by
the EU as a whole.
According to the
Commission's most recent projections, which take
into account measures implemented at national
and European level up to the end of December
2009, consumption in 2020 is expected to be 1678
Mtoe, equivalent to a saving of only 9% relative
to the previous projection.
Why was so little progress made?
A number of
market and regulatory failures are responsible
for that:
- Governance: the prominence of energy
efficiency has increased in recent years but is
still not sufficiently high on policy agendas,
the policy mix is often insufficient or too
softly worded to address all challenges and in
many cases there is poor policy coordination.
- Building sector (residential and commercial
buildings): there is still low awareness on the
benefits, low mobilisation of the available
funds to cover the initial costs, and a lack of
the skills required by the buildings workforce.
- Industry: significant improvements have been
achieved but energy is not a major concern in
many production processes due to low awareness
(especially for SMEs) and low availability of
funds to cover the initial costs.
What can be done now? What sectors should be
targeted?
Current estimates
show that the sectors that deserve the highest
attention are residential, transport and
tertiary with more limited possibilities also
available for industry. Major improvements are
also needed in the energy transformation sector
if the overall 20% target is to be achieved.
Why is there a need for an Energy Efficiency
Plan? What about legislative proposals?
The Communication
is a strategy paper that sets out ideas for
binding measures to save energy. In a few
months, legislative proposals with very concrete
binding measures will follow.
As regards national energy efficiency targets,
the Commission will firstly monitor the
implementation of the national energy efficiency
targets set in the context of Europe 2020 and
check in 2013 whether they will deliver the
European 20% objective. If the 2013 review shows
that the overall EU target is unlikely to be
achieved, the Commission will, at a second
stage, consider proposing legally binding
national targets for 2020.
What is proposed in the new Energy Efficiency
Plan?
The plan focuses
on instruments to trigger the renovation process
in public and private buildings, to improve the
energy performance of the appliances used in
them and to foster energy efficiency in
households and the industry. The Communication
does not cover transport, as a White paper on
Transport is due to come out soon.
For the public sector,
the EU Commission proposes the following binding
measures:
- Public authorities should be required to
refurbish at least 3% of their buildings (by
area) each year. This is roughly double of the
actual renovation rate. Each refurbishment
should bring the building up to the level of the
best 10% of the national building stock. When
public bodies rent or buy existing buildings,
these should always be in the best available
energy performance class.
- High standards of energy efficiency should
systematically be applied when public
authorities purchase goods (e.g. office
appliances), services (e.g. energy) and works
(e.g. refurbishment of buildings). Due to the
large volume of public spending (17% of GDP or
roughly €2,000 bn and public buildings are about
12% of the EU build up area) it could serve as a
strong driver for higher market uptake of energy
efficiency and development of the skills and
knowledge required
For the private building sector,
the EU Commission proposes:
Member States are called upon to introduce
measures – in line with national property law -
to address the problem of split incentives. This
means how the costs of renovation are split
between the tenant and the landlord in case of
rented buildings and apartments. At the same
time, Member States are called on to support the
uptake of Energy Service Companies as catalysts
for renovation. Energy Service Companies
renovate private houses and apartment at their
own costs and make profits by receiving the
difference between the energy costs before and
after the renovation over a defined period of
time.
For energy companies,
it is proposed:
Energy companies have to enable their customers
to cut their energy consumption. This could take
different forms. In the UK for example, large
electricity and gas suppliers are obliged by law
to cut energy consumption of their customers by
a pre-defined level. The energy companies pay
for new installations in private houses such as
double glazing to cut energy. They get their
costs back via energy prices. Another model is
to ask Energy Service Companies to do the
necessary investments.
For the industry,
it is proposed:
Large companies have to do regular and
independent energy audits. They have to organize
these themselves. Member States are encouraged
to develop incentives for companies that
introduce an energy management system as a
systematic framework for the rational use of
energy.
Exchange of best practices in energy efficiency
and projects aimed at building capacity on
energy management are proposed for micro and
small companies.
More information:
see full text with graphics
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