General Information
This section covers general information for the Directive 2002/91. You should begin from that point in order to understand the information provided from this e-learning tool.
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- It constitutes the main legal instrument in the EU.
- It affects awareness on energy use in buildings.
- It intends to lead to substantial increases in investments in energy efficiency measures within these buildings.
- It concerns all buildings, both domestic and non-domestic (with specific exceptions wherein the Member States can omit specific categories of buildings).
To improve the energy performance of these buildings by requiring:
- A methodology to calculate the integrated energy performance of buildings.
- Minimum energy requirements for new buildings.
- Minimum energy requirements for large existing buildings under renovation.
- Energy certification of buildings.
- Regular inspection of boilers and of air conditioning systems.
The energy demand of the 160 million buildings in the EU accounts for over 40% of its annual energy consumption.
The building sector offers the largest single potential for energy efficiency in the EU.
Studies show that more than one-fifth of the present energy consumption and up to 30-45 million tonnes of CO2 per annum could be saved by 2010 by applying more ambitious standards to refurbishments and new building projects.
To this direction the Directive represents a significant contribution to meeting the Kyoto targets, where, Europe has committed to reducing emissions by 330 million tonnes per annum.
The aim of improved energy efficiency has been set out in earlier existing legal instruments.
Among the main Community legislation for the sector are:
• the Construction Products Directive (89/106/EEC),
• the Boiler Directive (92/42/EEC) and,
• the buildings provisions in the SAVE Directive (93/76/EEC).
The Directive on the energy performance of buildings is in force since January 2003.
It was built on those measures with the aim to provide an ambitious step-ahead result and to increase the energy performance of public, commercial and private buildings in all Member States.
According to the European Commissioner for Energy, a cost-effective savings potential of around 22% of present consumption in buildings can be realised by 2010. The directive can contribute significantly to facilitating this reduction in energy consumption.
The Directive facilitates a change in the property market through implementation of requirements for evaluation of building performance:
- Introducing agreed methods of comparative building performance.
- Regular inspections and re-evaluations.
- Requiring higher standards for upgrading larger buildings.
- Improving standards for new buildings.
- The Directive was adopted on December 2002 and entered into force in January 2003.
- A period of three years was given for Member States to bring into force the laws, regulations and administrative provisions necessary to comply with the Directive by January 2006.
- Information on the specific provisions in each country are available through appropriate measures in the individual Member States whereupon request from the Member States the European Commission shall also assist in staging information campaigns.
- Resources have been made available to assist the Member States with the implementation of the Directive correctly and to facilitate its take off through various activities.
- The implementation of the Directive in the Member States will be followed up closely by the Commission.
A number of legal and non-legal instruments have close relation with the implementation of the EPBD.
The legal instruments are mainly the associated directives, whilst the non-legal instruments can be found in standardisation, certification and quality assurance systems and instruments.
- Construction products directive
- Directive on energy efficiency requirements for hot water boilers
- Directive on the promotion of co-generation
- Energy services directive
- Directive on energy efficiency requirements for ballasts for flourescent lighting
- Eco-design directive
- Directive on energy efficiency requirements for refrigerators and freezers
For the overview please point the following link:
- CEN standardisation
- Energy Demand Management Committee
- Intelligent Energy – Europe Programme including the Concerted Action – EPBD. The EPBD Buildings Platform (link not yet available) and the SAVE and ALTENER fields of key vertical and horizontal actions, via the links:
The EPBD Buildings Platform is a project of the European Commission with the objective of supporting the full and continued implementation of the EPBD in the 25 Member States, Bulgaria and Romania and to ensure that the Directive actually leads to substantial energy savings and increased use of renewable energies.
The EPBD Buildings Platform has three overall objectives:
- To set up mechanisms for the transfer of information between all stakeholders.
- To help implement the Directive by specific actions and co-ordinate the activities of the various stakeholders (including the CA-EPBD and other IEE projects).
- To provide input and/or tools to support the follow up and evaluation of the impact of the Directive in light of early experience.
and provides;
- A website supporting information exchange between a wide variety of users across Europe.
- A database driven newsletter.
- Various databases covering publications, standards, software tools, events, etc.
- Approximately 50 EPBD Information Papers covering a wide range of topics such as CEN status, IEE projects, national implementation status, highlights of EPBD related conferences, European activities, etc., including translation services on specific topics.
- An active collaboration between Management Energy, Sustainable Energy Europe Campaign and other European actions and leading European conferences.
An active support to Member States and stakeholders through Helpdesk and targeted actions.
- Special reports prepared at the request of the EC.
The CA-EPBD is a project of the European Commission with the overall aim of promoting the dialogue between the Members States and the following specific objectives:
- To discuss and prepare a structure for the energy certification of buildings to maximise similarities and reduce the range of different options selected by the Member States.
- To discuss and prepare a coherent basis for the methodologies for inspection of heating boilers and air-conditioning equipment.
- To discuss and prepare ways to implement adequate schemes for accreditation of energy audit and inspection experts in Member States.
- To discuss criteria for the implementation of common methodologies for calculation of the energy performance of buildings.
To reach this goal, the CA-EPBD is structured in 4 core groups, related to the 4 core themes:
- Certification of buildings.
- Inspection of boilers and air-conditioning systems.
- Specifications and training requirements for experts and inspectors.
- Procedural aspects for energy performance characterisation.
For each participating country, CA-EPBD participants are the representatives of the National government ministries or government affiliated institutions responsible for the technical, legal and administrative framework related to transposition of the EPBD in their country.
Information on the CA-EPBD is available through a monthly webzine which can be downloaded from the website http://www.epbd-ca.org of the project.
It should be noted that the objective of the CA-EPBD is to enhance the sharing of information between the national bodies responsible for the necessary framework provisions within individual Member States.
The mechanisms for supporting the transfer of all public information between all stakeholders are specific activities of the EPBD Buildings Platform.
The Intelligent Energy – Europe Programme of the European Commission is intended to support the European Union’s policy in the field of energy.
Details on the IEE Programme can be found via the following link:
http://europa.eu.int/comm/energy/intelligent/index_en.html
As part of the IEE Programme and in order to support the implementation of the EPBD a series of projects were selected and commenced in January 2005.
An overview of all the contracted projects related to the buildings sector, including those supporting the take-off of the Directive can be found in the following document:
Contracted projects related to the buildings sector
http://europa.eu.int/comm/energy/intelligent/projects/doc/lists/projects_epbd_en.pdf
This document will be updated in the near future with an overview of the key areas and actions in the building sector which are currently addressed by ongoing projects funded by the IEE Programme.
Articles 11 and 14 of the Directive provide for the establishment of a Committee to oversee the implementation of the Directive on behalf of the European Commission. This Committee has the basic remit to “evaluate the Directive in light of experience gained during its application”.
However, this Committee has been convened by the European Commission earlier than anticipated in order to expedite the implementation of the EPBD on a broadly common basis, by providing a medium for dialogue and co-ordination between the 25 EU member States.
The title of the Committee is now the “Energy Demand Management Committee” (EDMC).
The EDMC generally meets on a quarterly basis. It is made up of representatives of each EU government, both administrative and specialist, together with certain independent observers.
EDMC Sub Group Monitoring Development of CEN Standards.
CEN is the European Standards Organisation responsible for producing (harmonised) European standards.
The European Commission has issued a mandate to CEN to expedite the production of a suite of supporting European Standards (EN) in relation to the methodologies for assessing the energy performance of buildings and for inspection of boilers and air-conditioning systems.
Approximately 30 such standards have been identified and cover:
- Format and presentation of overall energy performance of buildings.
- Calculation of overall energy performance of buildings (including simplified method).
- Boilers and heating systems.
- Air-conditioning systems.
- Individual detailed component standards to support the above.
While the application of such standards is not mandatory on Member States under the EPBD, they are seen as important resources to the Member States in facilitating implementation, as well as encouraging a harmonised approach.
A sub-group of the EDMC has been formed to monitor the ongoing development of EPBD related standards by CEN.