The European Commission has recently published implementation guidelines for Member States to facilitate the transposition of Article 3 of Directive (EU) 2023/1791 to their national law.
The guidelines on the Energy Efficiency First Principle focus on:
- The methods for assessment;
- The scope of wider benefits to be considered;
- The differences of application between regulated and market parties;
- The choice of monitoring entity;
- Reporting in the NECP.
In addition, it provides examples of implementation across the various policy areas and energy and non-energy sectors.
The guidelines also highlight that energy efficiency solutions – as defined in the legislation – go beyond end-use energy savings and include all demand-side resources such as demand response and energy storage, and the efficient conversion, transmission and distribution of energy.
You can find the full set of guidelines here.
The Enefirst Plus project focuses on providing key stakeholders existing resources for investment in energy infrastructure, energy planning, and designing incentives. The project provides practical guidelines and “real-life examples” on implementing the EE1st principle.
You can find the latest report from the project on “What’s new in the EU on Energy Efficiency First (EE1st)?”, which provides an overview of recent EU policy developments relevant to EE1st, and then analyses the background in the four pilot countries for the first pilot cases.
This article was prepared with our project partner Zsuzsanna Pato from RAP (Regulatory Assistance Project).
