Climate change & energy

Action in the UK - Energy services

The Energy Services Directive will promote energy efficiency in the UK. A clear indication of how it will be implemented was given to the EU by the 17 May 2008 deadline, as summarised in this webpage.  It impacts on both providers and users of energy. The Directive’s full name is the EC Directive on Energy End Use Efficiency and Energy Services and, as announced in the Energy White Paper, new policy measures may be needed to implement it. Defra has lead responsibility for implementing the Directive and works closely with other government departments and the devolved administrations The Directive was not fully implemented by 17 May, though there is agreement in principle with most key sectors.

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    Background

    The Directive was introduced to enhance the cost effective improvement of energy end use efficiency in Member States. It covers all forms of energy, including electricity, natural gas, liquefied petroleum gas and other fuels such as coal and heating oil, biomass and transport fuels (except aviation and bunker fuels).

    The Directive applies to providers of energy efficiency measures, energy distributors, distribution system operators and retail energy sales companies; and all energy users except those involved with the EU carbon emissions trading scheme .

    Energy companies may be excluded from the requirements of Articles 6 (energy distributors, distribution system operators and retail energy sales companies) and 13 (billing and metering) of the Directive if they meet any of the following criteria:

    • annual turnover of 2m Euros (total not just energy) or less
    • energy production equivalent to 75GWh or below below (for comparison, 80GWh approximates to two fuel tankers delivering throughout the year)
    • employs fewer than ten people (in total including contractors)

    The main requirements of the Directive are:

    • national indicative energy savings target of 9% by 2017
    • public sector to fulfil an exemplary role in meeting the target
    • Member States required to place obligations on energy suppliers and distributors to promote energy efficiency
    • requirements on metering and billing to allow consumers to make better informed decisions about their energy use

    A Project Board comprising Defra and other Government Departments, the Devolved Administrations and Ofgem is steering implementation,  through five workstreams:

    • Workstream 1  - Articles 4 and 14 on setting a UK energy target and monitoring of that target
    • Workstream 2 – Article 5 on the public sector playing an exemplary role in energy efficiency measures
    • Workstreams 3 and 4 – Articles 6-12 on placing obligations on energy suppliers and on developing the market for energy services and energy efficiency improvement measures
    • Workstream 5 – Article 13 on smart metering and better billing

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    Workstream 1

    The required UK Energy Efficiency Action Plan 2007, which announced that we expect to double the EU indicative energy saving target of 9% over nine years by 2017, and deliver 18% saving, was published on 29 June 2007. The European Commission will report on the UK and other Member States' plans in 2008. Two further plans will be produced before July 2011 and July 2014 and Defra will continue to work on these throughout the lifetime of the Directive.

    Defra is also working with European partners on the EMEEES project to harmonise evaluation and monitoring methods.

    As part of the framework for overseeing energy savings, a workshop on data requirements was held in September 2007. Papers from the workshop can be requested via email at energyservicesdirective@defra.gsi.gov.uk

    Defra commissioned the consultants Ecofys to examine the case for developing an improved energy efficiency data management framework. The report has now been published (see latest news) and the next steps are now being finalised.

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    Workstream 2

    Article 5 requires the public sector to fulfil an exemplary role in the context of energy end use efficiency. As part of performing this exemplary role the public sector must communicate its energy saving actions to the wider public. The Directive requires the public sector to take up cost effective energy efficiency improvements that generate the largest savings in the shortest space of time A cross-governmental steering group has been established to advise the implementation of Article 5.On 13 December 2007 Defra published a consultationoutlining the UK Governments preliminary views of implementing Article 5. In support of this consultation are the following two reports:

    Two workshops were held to inform the consultation
    • 29 January 2008 - aim of the workshop was to discuss what a voluntary agreement for the public sector relating to the procurement of energy using equipment and vehicles might look like.
    • 11 September 2007 - aim of the workshop was to review the current level of public sector compliance and identify possible options for meeting gaps in compliance, particularly in relation to options in Annex VI of the Directive.

    The consultation closed in March and the summary of responses is expected to be published in July 2008. A series of detailed negotiations on voluntary agreements have taken place with lead bodies across the public sector and the current aim is to finalise and get the voluntary agreements signed up to in July 2008. Work will then commence with delivery bodies to improve the sharing of best practice and effective communication during the rest of 2008.

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    Workstreams 3 and 4

    These workstreams place obligations on energy suppliers and on developing the market for energy services and energy efficiency improvement measures. The August consultationprimarily focused on these workstreams and closed on 26 October 2007.  

    The summary of responseshas been published. The responses generally supported the Government’s preferred approach of voluntary agreements with energy suppliers and discussions are underway with suppliers and other stakeholders on the format and contents of voluntary agreements.

    In support of the consultation were the following two reports:

    Following the closure of the consultation period and to help with the development of the voluntary agreements, a series of workshops were held in January and February 2008 with key stakeholders. The first of these was with the net bound- sector (gas and electricity supplied through the national grids), which produced the following reports and presentations:

    Workshops with the non net-bound sector (non-grid fuels eg coal, heating oil, LPG and wood fuel) and a cross-sector workshop for Northern Ireland produced the following reports:

    An earlier workshop on the wider energy services market was held in May 2007 to inform this consultation at which the following documents were tabled:

    Outline agreement has been reach with energy suppliers and distributors (including trade associations) in the shape of voluntary agreements. It is expected that the final agreements will be signed at or around the Chancellor of the Exchequer’s energy services summit announced in Budget 2008, which is currently expected to take place in June.

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    Workstream 5

    Workstream 5 requirements have been considered as part of the Energy Review work on billing and metering led by BERR (formerly DTI), with involvement from Defra and Ofgem.  A number of commitments to action were published in Chapter 2 of the Energy White Paper in May 2007. These took account of responses to a public consultation on options for billing and metering. A second-round three month consultation on billing and metering was published in August. It concluded at the end of November and the Government response was published by BERR on 29 April.

    In July 2007, Defra published a desk study on heat metering to support BERR’s second-round consultation, as follows:

    On 17 October 2007, Defra hosted a stakeholder event on real time display policy, to seek views on maximising the influence of real time energy data.

    The Government Response to the consultation on energy billing metering confirmed that the Government will move ahead with advanced metering for medium-sized businesses (as announced in the Budget 2008). It also confirmed that energy suppliers will have to provide historical consumption data on domestic customers’ electricity and gas bills from 1 January 2009; a Statutory Instrument was laid in April to implement the requirement. On real-time displays, the Government said it would work with electricity and gas suppliers on making displays available to consumers in the short-to-medium term. On smart metering for domestic consumers and small business customers, the Government Response stated that more work is needed before a final decision.

    Parts of Article 13 also apply to non net-bound supplies of energy and discussions with stakeholders and the Workstreams 3 and 4 consultation deals with these issues.

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    Page last modified: 18 July 2008
    Page published 19 March 2004

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs