Financial aspects of energy policies for art. 7 EED: webinar recording available!

Last October 21, 2020, ENSMOV organised a webinar on the financial aspects of energy policies for art. 7 EED. The recording is now available, and a short summary below.

Context

Article 7 of the EED is one of the most important instruments for achieving the ambitious energy efficiency targets. The effective design of the energy efficiency policies within the framework of the Energy Efficiency Obligation Schemes (ΕΕΟs) and the alternative measures is considered as a prerequisite for fulfilling the Article 7’s target for all the Member States, while the effective financing of the planned policies constitutes an additional challenge, which must be addressed appropriately so as to facilitate the smooth implementation of them.

The main barriers often faced by the Member States on the financing of the energy efficiency policies consists indicatively of the promotion of most cost-effective interventions, the difficulty to leverage private investments and to facilitate the access of the involved parties to the available funds, the problem to demonstrate the transparency of the selected model, the compliance with the state-aid rules etc.

Results from the ENSMOV Stakeholder needs assessment indicate that the effective understanding of the financial aspects of energy efficiency policies within the context of Article 7 of the EED will foster the unhampered implementation of them and will contribute to the achieved of the specific targets.

Scope of the workshop

To support MS with these challenges the workshop focused on the examination of the financial sustainability for the most successful energy efficiency policies at EU level. Specifically, best practices were presented and specific recommendations discussed in order to ensure the further sustainability of the various subsidy programmes for all the interested MS.

To help explore the various issues, which are linked with the financial sustainability of the subsidy programs, the session included the following discussions:

1. Financial aspects, which must be taken into account during the design and implementation of the subsidy programs within the framework of alternative measures
2. Role of the Energy Efficiency National Fund for supporting the national energy efficiency policies with the framework of both the EEOs and the alternative measures.
3. Discussion about the application of the state-aid rules for energy efficiency policies.

The workshop was structured around presentations from Member States, sharing experiences and best practices on the financial aspects of the energy efficiency policies within the framework of the Article 7 of the EED, with presenters from Austria, Greece, Italy and Spain.

• Application of the state-aid rules for energy efficiency policies
  • Insights at EU level from ENSMOV project – Ivana Rogulj, IEECP
• Design and implementation of subsidy programs
  • The Austrian experience – DI Georg Thor, Energy Consulting Salzburg
  • The Greek experience – Christos Tourkolias, CRES
• Establishment and operation of the Energy Efficiency Fund
  • The Spanish experience – Diana Lopez Garcia, IDEA
  • The Italian experience – Dario Di Santo, FIRE