News item | 04-07-2022 | 13:15
The energy saving obligation is the most important instrument for encouraging energy saving in companies. The obligation will be expanded by also requiring large energy users, including participating EU ETS companies, to make their energy consumption more sustainable from 2023 in order to reduce CO2 emissions. We are also looking at extending the obligation to greenhouse horticulture. More power and resources are also going to the environmental services to monitor this. Finally, the lists of recognized energy-saving measures per sector are updated. Minister Jetten wrote this in a letter to the House of Representatives today.
Minister Jetten for Climate and Energy: “Energy saving is certainly of crucial importance now. We do not have to produce, pay for or import energy that we do not use. Companies can make an important contribution to this. That is also good for energy costs, the climate and it makes us less dependent on fossil fuels from Russia.”
Surveillance and enforcement
The energy saving obligation obliges companies and institutions with an energy consumption of 50,000 kWh of electricity or 25,000 m3 of natural gas to take all possible energy-saving measures with a payback period of five years or less. The necessary regulations for this, as well as the updated lists of Recognized Measures, will be consulted this summer. With the expansion of large energy users and the sustainable use of energy, the saving potential is approximately 19 petajoules of natural gas and 7 petajoules of electricity in 2030. This is approximately 1.2 megatonnes of CO2 reduction. The expansion to EU ETS companies also leads to 2 megatons of CO2 reduction potential. Added to this is the estimated effect of the extra effort on supervision and enforcement.
For the enforcement of the energy saving obligation it is important that there is sufficient capacity in environmental services. Since 2019, €19.5 million has been made available. For the period 2022-2026, €56 million will be made available to strengthen environmental services. In order to improve supervision, the Cabinet is adapting the so-called basic package of tasks of the environmental services and they can request energy consumption data from network operators. In this way the environmental services always have access to the correct information.
Bet on savings
The government is fully committed to energy saving. In the first five months of this year, for example, a third less gas was used compared to previous years. The energy-saving campaign ‘Turn the button too’ has now been updated with saving advice for companies and households that are specifically aimed at the summer period. In the week of 11 July, the campaign will be expanded with radio spots. The Ministry of Economic Affairs has developed an interactive SME advisory tool for small entrepreneurs. With this tool, which is available at www.zetookdeknopom.nl/bedrijvenentrepreneurs can easily map out what options and obligations there are to make their business more sustainable and what subsidies are available for this.
The government recently announced that it was exploring national savings targets. In addition, the Netherlands indicated last week in Europe that it was setting ambitious goals through the Energy Efficiency Directive. During the Energy Council, an agreement was reached between member states to consume 9% less energy in Europe by 2030 compared to the estimated consumption in that year. And there is a binding annual target for each country to gradually work towards 1.5% energy savings. These negotiations will continue in the European trilogues.