Evaluating the implementation of Article 7 of the energy efficiency directive

The Energy Efficiency Directive calls for EU Member States to put in place ambitious energy efficiency policies. One of the most important Articles of the Directive is Article 7 which required Member States to implement Energy Efficiency Obligations and/or alternative policy instruments in order to reach a reduction in final energy use of 1.5% per year. This paper assesses how Article 7 has been applied by Member States and what the implications are. Analysing the notifications and National Energy Efficiency Action Plans of all 28 Member States we evaluate how Article 7 is implemented across the EU. This includes an analysis of the types of policies used, the distribution of the anticipated savings across the different policy instruments, and whether or not the way Article 7 is applied meets the requirements set by the Directive. Our analysis shows that Member States take very different approaches with some using tens of policy measures and others just one. We also identify areas of concern particularly related to the additionality of the energy savings, the calculation methods, and the monitoring and verification regimes adopted by Member States. We model to what extent the projected savings are likely to materialise. Currently only 14% of all energy savings have been rated as fully eligible, fully additional, at low risk of double counting and at low risk of non-delivery. Although the policies adopted by Member States would in theory be sufficient to meet the Article 7 targets, given the total expected savings, our analysis suggests that 86% of these expected savings are at least partially at risk of not being realised. We make suggestions for modifying the Energy Efficiency Directive in order to address some of the problems encountered.