Periodic Reporting for period 1 - REFEREE (Real ValuE oF EneRgy EfficiEncy)
Reporting period: 2020-10-01 to 2022-06-30
Energy efficiency is a major cornerstone of the EU decarbonization strategy for 2050.energy policy. With the right regulatory measures, enabling framework and support mechanisms, the EU will cut its energy demand in half by 2050 – this could accelerate significantly which would be a key contribution to make the EU energy transition towards achieving carbon neutrality economy climate neutral by 2050. This would also enhance the role of renewables in the EU energy mix, as higher energy efciency enables higher renewable shares as it helps to reduce generation capacities.
The successful deployment of energy efficiency requires a well-functioning EU market to create a level playing field for these measures to compete with supply side changes. A systematic and holistic approach is thus needed to acknowledge the transition of energy efficiency from a "hidden fuel" to the "first fuel".
To achieve the objective to transform energy efficiency from and hidden fuel to the first one, it is of the utmost importance to bring to the attention of policy makers and of the main players in the energy market that improved energy efficiency translates into several indirect benefits, which, if properly accounted for, can substantially contribute to the economic viability of the energy efficiency measures. Such actions contribute moreover to the human well-being, and in many cases, contribute to improved competitiveness of businesses, reduce greenhouse gas and other pollutants harmful to human health and the environment. Energy efficiency investments may moreover have notable effects on the labour market as well as on the resource consumption, as savings in the use-phase of high-efficiency products.
All this is then taken into account by the REFEREE that aims at achieving two separated but correlated general objectives:
· Analise and quantify direct and indirect non-energy impacts of energy efficiency investments and to which extent they can contribute to increasing their cost effectiveness;
· Develop easy-to-use tools to support policymakers at national, regional and local levels, as well as households, businesses, financing institutions and other relevant stakeholders to evaluate the overall multiple impacts of their choices in the energy efficiency field.
The project delivers these objectives by designing and developing an integrated set of analysis tools from the macro to the microeconomic level at the scale of consumers and firms to provide cost-effectiveness and more meaningful investment indicators to policymakers, businesses, financial institutions and final users, taking into account the real value of energy efficiency interventions, according to the different policy instruments to be used and the corresponding sectoral intervention types.
The successful deployment of energy efficiency requires a well-functioning EU market to create a level playing field for these measures to compete with supply side changes. A systematic and holistic approach is thus needed to acknowledge the transition of energy efficiency from a "hidden fuel" to the "first fuel".
To achieve the objective to transform energy efficiency from and hidden fuel to the first one, it is of the utmost importance to bring to the attention of policy makers and of the main players in the energy market that improved energy efficiency translates into several indirect benefits, which, if properly accounted for, can substantially contribute to the economic viability of the energy efficiency measures. Such actions contribute moreover to the human well-being, and in many cases, contribute to improved competitiveness of businesses, reduce greenhouse gas and other pollutants harmful to human health and the environment. Energy efficiency investments may moreover have notable effects on the labour market as well as on the resource consumption, as savings in the use-phase of high-efficiency products.
All this is then taken into account by the REFEREE that aims at achieving two separated but correlated general objectives:
· Analise and quantify direct and indirect non-energy impacts of energy efficiency investments and to which extent they can contribute to increasing their cost effectiveness;
· Develop easy-to-use tools to support policymakers at national, regional and local levels, as well as households, businesses, financing institutions and other relevant stakeholders to evaluate the overall multiple impacts of their choices in the energy efficiency field.
The project delivers these objectives by designing and developing an integrated set of analysis tools from the macro to the microeconomic level at the scale of consumers and firms to provide cost-effectiveness and more meaningful investment indicators to policymakers, businesses, financial institutions and final users, taking into account the real value of energy efficiency interventions, according to the different policy instruments to be used and the corresponding sectoral intervention types.
The work carried out in the first phase of the project that is, from the beginning up to the end of June 2022, involved four different but related activities:
- A benchmarking analysis to evaluate the existing good practices, studies, tools and models that have already assessed a range of energy and non-energy impacts of energy efficiency policies, technological solutions and behavioural measures, in order to highlight the pros and cons of these works so to specify in detail the features, the expected outputs and the user interface characteristics of the tools to be developed.
- The constitution of the Project Advisory Group (PAG) composed by a consistent number of stakeholders (policy makers, experts, operators in the industry and building sectors) and their involvment in two information and discussion workshops.The objective of this communication and networking activity is to improve the REFEREE policy support system in order to allow better support and user engagement to policy makers and other relevant stakeholders, reinforcing the effectiveness of the existing and planned energy efficiency policy measures. The results of the first two workshops have demonstrated the interest of the involved stakeholders in the project scope and the validity and usefulness of this initiative.
- The advanced development of the suite of modelling tools that constitute the foundations on which to develop the REFEREE policy support system by providing basic insights into i) the role/impact of energy efficiency policy and ii) the various benefits of such policy. This concerned the development of four new technology diffusion models, covering the building, transport and industry sectors and the quantification of the multiple benefits to be incorporated into a user-friendly interface – fit for the needs of the REFEREE’s target audience.
- The starting of the design and development of the REFEREE policy-support tool. In particular the design of the REFEREE system’s architecture and rapid prototyping was completed and the analysis of the technological solutions to by evaluated by the tool carried out.
The work carried out in this period is perfectly in line with the initial project planning and allows to move on to the testing and implementation phase of the REFEREE policy support system to be carried out starting from the end of 2022.
- A benchmarking analysis to evaluate the existing good practices, studies, tools and models that have already assessed a range of energy and non-energy impacts of energy efficiency policies, technological solutions and behavioural measures, in order to highlight the pros and cons of these works so to specify in detail the features, the expected outputs and the user interface characteristics of the tools to be developed.
- The constitution of the Project Advisory Group (PAG) composed by a consistent number of stakeholders (policy makers, experts, operators in the industry and building sectors) and their involvment in two information and discussion workshops.The objective of this communication and networking activity is to improve the REFEREE policy support system in order to allow better support and user engagement to policy makers and other relevant stakeholders, reinforcing the effectiveness of the existing and planned energy efficiency policy measures. The results of the first two workshops have demonstrated the interest of the involved stakeholders in the project scope and the validity and usefulness of this initiative.
- The advanced development of the suite of modelling tools that constitute the foundations on which to develop the REFEREE policy support system by providing basic insights into i) the role/impact of energy efficiency policy and ii) the various benefits of such policy. This concerned the development of four new technology diffusion models, covering the building, transport and industry sectors and the quantification of the multiple benefits to be incorporated into a user-friendly interface – fit for the needs of the REFEREE’s target audience.
- The starting of the design and development of the REFEREE policy-support tool. In particular the design of the REFEREE system’s architecture and rapid prototyping was completed and the analysis of the technological solutions to by evaluated by the tool carried out.
The work carried out in this period is perfectly in line with the initial project planning and allows to move on to the testing and implementation phase of the REFEREE policy support system to be carried out starting from the end of 2022.
The validity and robustness of the tools under development and testing will be verified during 2023 both thanks to the continuous involvement of stakeholders and through the execution of specific case studies. Therefore, there are still no results to prove but expectations are certainly high and we hope that this project can make a significant contribution to a strong acceleration of measures and investments in energy efficiency, which is extremely topical today, given the energy crisis that it is crossing Europe.