ShareRefrigeration at the heart of measures to promote energy efficiency in the EU
Decarbonised district cooling, efficient cooling of data centers and local cooling plans are part of the agreement reached for a reinforcement on the EU Directive on energy efficiency.
A provisional agreement was reached on March 10, 2023 with the European Parliament and the Council to reform and strengthen the EU Energy Efficiency Directive (1). This deal marks a further step in the completion of the "Fit for 55" package to implement the European Green Deal and the REPowerEU Plan (2).
The European Green Deal is the EU's long-term growth strategy to make Europe climate-neutral by 2050. The revision of the Energy Efficiency Directive is one of the "Fit for 55" proposals presented by the Commission in July 2021 to allow to reduce net greenhouse gas emissions by at least 55% by 2030, compared to 1990 levels. Energy efficiency is also a key pillar of the REPowerEU plan, which aims to make Europe independent from Russian fossil fuels, starting with gas, especially by increasing LNG imports from other suppliers (2).
According to the European Commission, the agreement reached is a clear requirement for EU countries to take energy efficiency into consideration in policy, planning and major investment decisions in the energy sector and beyond. It requires EU Member States to collectively ensure an additional reduction in final and primary energy consumption, compared to the 2020 energy consumption forecasts.
This deal nearly doubles the annual energy savings obligation. EU countries will be required to achieve additional savings each year of 1.49% of final energy consumption on average, from 2024 to 2030, up from the current level of 0.8%. This corresponds to energy savings of 11.7% by 2030, approximately the energy consumption of Spain (3).
The EC sees it as an important instrument to drive energy savings in end-use sectors such as buildings, industry and transport. Under the revised directive, energy management systems will become a default obligation for large energy consumers. All enterprises, including small and medium-sized enterprises whose annual energy consumption exceeds 85 TJ, will have to implement an energy management system. Otherwise, they will be subject to an energy audit if their annual consumption exceeds 10TJ. For the first time, a reporting scheme for energy performance of large data centers is also being introduced.
EU countries will also have to promote local heating and cooling plans in large municipalities with populations of over 45,000. Also, with the revised definition of efficient district heating and cooling, the minimum requirements will be gradually changed to ensure a fully decarbonised district heating and cooling supply by 2050.
The provisional agreement now requires formal adoption by the European Parliament and the Council.
(1) https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_23_1581
(2) https://iifiir.org/en/news/lng-a-pillar-of-eu-gas-supply-diversification