Reaching maximum impact of the EPBD – Recommendations from Regions and their Energy Agencies

The Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD) is a cornerstone of EU’s legislation on the energy performance of buildings and its upcoming revision will influence the next decade’s national and regional buildings policies. As announced in its Renovation Wave, the European Commission is revising the EPBD aiming at accelerating the transformation of the EU building stock into a highly energy efficient and decarbonised building stock by 2050.

Regions and local/regional energy agencies have long been delivery agents of the EPBD, being behind the implementation of many of its provisions:

• advising on development and ensuring compliance with minimum energy performance requirements (art.4);
• optimising technical building systems through energy management systems (art.8);
• promoting the NZEB standard and providing practical support to achieve it (art.9);
• developing financial schemes and overcoming market barriers through strategic facilitation actions (art.10);
• issuing high quality EPC and implementing their recommendations (art.11);
• informing and activating all relevant stakeholders linked to building renovation projects (art.20).

Based on their experience, FEDARENE highlights 3 drivers that would maximise the impact of the EPBD:

• Embedding the energy agency facilitation model
• Technical assistance for integrated renovation services
• Successful Minimum Energy Performance Standards driven by facilitation services, one-stop shops and reliable data from territorial observatories