Making the "Energy efficiency first" principle more operational

Topic description

Objective:

‘Energy efficiency first’ (EE1st) has been a guiding principle in European climate and energy policies for many years. It means taking utmost account of cost-efficient energy efficiency measures in shaping energy policy and making relevant investment decisions. The principle is defined in the Governance Regulation, which inter alia requires EU countries to consider it in their National Energy and Climate Plans (NECPs). However, it is often overlooked in existing planning and investment programmes.

Following the publication of the Commission’s Recommendation and Guidelines on EE1st^[1], robust methodologies are needed to support and monitor the operational application of EE1st in energy and non-energy policy, planning and investment decisions and to measure well the impacts on energy consumption and energy efficiency.

Building on recent and ongoing Horizon 2020 energy efficiency research projects^[2] in the related field, action should address one or several of the following areas of work:

• Develop cost-benefit methodologies applying a system approach and taking into account the wider benefits of energy efficiency solutions from a societal perspective, providing tools and policy recommendations to assess energy efficiency solutions in the energy and non-energy sectors in line with EE1st.
• Support the development of frameworks and methodologies to further operationalise the principle at all levels and the integration of these frameworks across governmental levels.
• Support the monitoring of and reporting on the application of EE1st at the national, regional and local levels and assess the impacts of planning, policy and investment decisions on energy consumption and energy efficiency in line with and complementary to the reporting requirements as for example established in the governance regulation.
• Support the transfer of best practices where energy efficiency measures and projects are given priority over additional supply side measures at the national and local levels through pilot projects.

The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU of up to EUR 1.5 million would allow the specific objectives to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.

Proposals should result in the application of the "energy efficiency first-principle" in line with the European Commission Recommendation and Guidelines and lead to:

• New or updated methodologies for cost benefit assessments of energy efficiency solutions in energy and non-energy policy, planning and investment decisions.
• Updated procedures to apply EE1st and pilots applying best practices.
• New or updated monitoring schemes to report on the implementation of EE1st at the national, regional or local levels.

Proposals should quantify their impacts using the indicators listed below, where relevant, as well as other project-specific performance indicators:

• Primary energy savings triggered by the project (in GWh/year).
• Renewable energy generation triggered by the project (in GWh/year).
• Investments in sustainable energy triggered by the project (cumulative, in million Euro).

These impacts should be demonstrated during the project and within 5 years after the project lifetime.

[1]Commission Recommendation on Energy Efficiency First: from principles to practice. Guidelines and examples for its implementation in decision-making in the energy sector and beyond, C(2021) 7014 final.

[2]Notably: H2020 ENEFIRST, H2020 MICAT, H2020 EERAdata, H2020 Odyssee Mure.