Nov

Synthesis report of policy outcomes at the national levels

This report summarizes the main findings of ENSMOV at the European Member State level in relation to the implementation of new MRV systems and measures to implement Article 7 of the EED. Country factsheets based on the National Energy and Climate Plans (NECPs) and the ENSMOV Knowledge Transfer Platform are presented, providing information on Article 7 measures and the status and improvement of MRV. These are complemented by the results of an online survey and interviews to gather feedback and assessments from national experts.

Based on the National Energy and Climate Plans (NECPs), information available on the ENSMOV knowledge transfer platform (https://article7eed.eu) and contributions from national experts as well as ENSMOV partners, concise but detailed country factsheets have been prepared. These factsheets describe how the EU Member States (MS) plan to reach the EED Article 7 targets until 2030. Image below shows the choices of MS regarding EEOS and alternative measures.

The alternative measures implemented by the MS are quite diverse and reflect the different national circumstances. The same applies to the implementation of EEOS, with designs, targeted sectors and obligated parties varying from country to country. The country factsheets also provide an overview of how Member States intend to tackle energy poverty. While a number of countries plan to implement or have already implemented specific measures to tackle energy poverty, others have not specified concrete measures under the NECP.
All Member States have established structures for MRV of EED Article 7 energy savings. MRV systems are at different stages of development, with the goal for most being to be fully IT-based.
An online survey was launched in the second half of 2022 to complement the document analysis and to gather feedback and assessments from national experts with specific expertise in Article 7 policy implementation and MRV schemes. In addition, personal expert interviews were conducted in some selected countries.
In terms of policy implementation, the experts indicated that the greatest successes and positive developments in recent years in their countries have been the implementation (or improvement) of an energy efficiency policy measure and the involvement of more stakeholders or more intensive stakeholder involvement.
Good practice policies and measures were located by the experts in the categories of policy design, policy implementation, energy efficiency obligation schemes, buildings sector and industry sector.
In addition to good practices, several challenges in designing and implementing Article 7 policies were also identified by the national experts: They range from deciding whether to introduce EEOS and/or alternative measures, how to enforce the policies, how to reach the higher new targets of the EED in the future, how to finance the measures, how to enable all stakeholders to make the right decisions, and how to design the policies in detail.
The national experts were asked in the survey how big the challenge for achieving a proportion of energy savings among energy poor households is in their country. For the majority of experts, this target would not be easy to achieve. However, the answers are personal assessments that also vary among experts from the same countries. Therefore, no clear tendencies can be identified for the different countries.
The survey has asked for key lessons learned on national level regarding Art. 7 policies (re-)design and implementation. The responses of the national experts can be categorised as enforcement of Art. 7 policies, policy administration, incentives for energy efficiency projects, eligible energy efficiency actions, financing of projects and EEOS vs. alternative measures. The responses to the survey suggest that successful Article 7 measures have the following characteristics. They :

are well-designed,
provide appropriate incentives,
are based on solid funding,
have a low administrative burden,
reflect a strong political will,
are accompanied by effective support schemes, and
support energy poverty alleviation.

The online survey also asked the national experts about their experiences with MRV. The first question referred to the greatest successes and positive developments in recent years with regard to MRV schemes in their countries. Three different answers could be chosen, multiple answers were possible. The development and application of effective IT tools or platforms for MRV accounted for the most votes, followed by addressing requirements of Art. 7 related to additionality, materiality and eligibility. Most good practices for improving MRV schemes involve information technology (IT) for the collection, monitoring, reporting and evaluation of energy savings of individual projects and of overall results of policies. According to the national experts there are several challenges related to MRV, including the question of additionality of energy savings, introducing IT tools, updating the MRV system to comply with the new requirements of the EED, generating know-how on MRV among all stakeholders, running the MRV system smoothly and reducing the complexity. The key lessons learned related to the improvement of MRV schemes are quite diverse. They can be broadly categorised as MRV in general and preparation of the MRV scheme, accuracy of energy savings, need to keep the system simple, keeping the system updated, linking different databases, and compatibility with the EED. Finally, based on the survey, it can be concluded, that MRV systems should be: