The EU’s EPBD aims to promote improvement of buildings energy performance
Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) Commercial opportunity? ● ● ● ● ● Rising star for 2013? ● ● ● ● ● The Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) is a tax payer- funded initiative to encourage the use of renewable energy sources for heat production, such as biomass boilers, solar thermal installations and heat pumps. The tariff is at two levels; the first (higher) level is payable up to a maximum value dependent on the capacity of the system, and the second (lower) level then kicks in, effectively subsidising the fuel used. The levels are set in such a way as not to encourage the production of unwanted heat purely for revenue purposes. The rate of deployment has been very low, primarily because of the complexity of the heat metering required. By June, fewer than 100 systems had been approved for RHI payments, the bulk of these being biomass boilers. Work is ongoing to simplify and fully explain the metering systems to encourage further deployment.
Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD)
Commercial opportunity? ● ● ● ● ● Rising star for 2013? ● ● ● ● ● The EU’s Buildings Energy Performance Directive (EPBD) aims to promote the improvement of the energy performance of buildings within the EU through cost- effective measures. There are four main aspects to the EPBD: 1) Establishment of a calculation methodology – Member states must implement a methodology for the calculation of the energy performance of buildings, taking account of all factors that influence energy use. In the UK, this is called SAP (Standard Assessment Procedure) for domestic buildings and SBEM (Simplified Building Energy Model) for commercial buildings. 2) Minimum energy performance requirements – There must be regulations that set minimum energy performance requirements for new buildings and for large existing buildings when they are refurbished. The Building and Approved Inspectors (Amendment) Regulations 2006 amended the Building Regulations in England and Wales, with effect from 6 April 2006, for Part L to incorporate this. The energy saving requirements are regularly ramped up by recasts and updates to the EPBD, every few years.* 3) Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) – Since 2008 there must be an EPC made available whenever buildings are constructed, sold or rented out. A Display Energy certificate (DEC) must be produced every year for public buildings larger than 1,000m2
. It is based on actual energy use, whereas the EPC is calculated by comparison with a ‘notional’ equivalent building. 4) Inspections of boilers and air-conditioning – There must be regulations to require inspections of boilers and heating systems (or an alternative system of providing advice) and inspection of air conditioning systems. That is, air conditioning installations above a certain size must be inspected every five years. Boiler installations above a certain size must either be inspected regularly or advice must be provided to users.
*On the 19 May 2010, the European Parliament and Council published a recast of the directive (2010/31/EU), containing amendments. The purpose of the recast was to strengthen energy performance requirements and to clarify and streamline. In April 2012, changes to the EPC Regulations had a significant impact on those who sell or let property, both residential and commercial. The change effectively extended the current requirements to commission an EPC for residential buildings to all residential and non residential buildings being offered for sale or rent.
At present, it is only available for commercial installations, although it is hoped that domestic installations will be eligible in 2013.
Carbon Reduction Commitment for Energy Efficiency Scheme (CRCEES) Commercial opportunity? ● ● ● ● ● Rising star for 2013? ● ● ● ● ● This started off as a scheme where companies with electricity consumption of over 6,000MWH (roughly equivalent to a bill of £500,000) had to purchase carbon allowances to cover future emissions; these allowances are then ‘recycled’ (i.e., paid back)
later
in the year, dependent on how energy efficient the company had been in the previous year. The level of efficiency determined their position in a league table of the companies in the scheme. Those at the top received their allowance costs back plus a percentage, those at the bottom received their allowance costs back less a percentage.
This all changed in the government spending review,
when the Chancellor decided that the government would keep the money raised by allowance sales. The CRC then effectively became a levy on energy. The scheme did achieve one major goal, in that it brought energy efficiency as an issue to the boardroom, as a company main board member had to be allocated responsibility for returns to the administrators of the scheme, the Environment Agency. Recent consultation on the scheme asked for views on simplifying the administrative process involved with the scheme. In addition, it was stated in the Budget in May that if the scheme could not be simplified sufficiently to reduce costs, it would be scrapped and replaced with another ‘environmental’ tax. The additional cost – approximately 0.6p per unit on electricity bills – does serve to make energy efficiency investment decisions easier, but one feature of the CRCEES is that it highlights the much larger total cost of energy, and the need for commercial energy saving measures.
28 ECA Today July 2012
SHUTTERSTOCK / JORISVO
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