Proceedings of the Conference: Good Practices of Energy Efficiency in the European industry

Rome – February, 23rd 2017

The first section was dedicated to the presentation of the preliminary results of EU-MERCI by partners of the project.

Vlasis Oikonomou, from JIN, provided  a picture of the energy efficiency policies and schemes at the EU28 level, highlighting the differences and the lack of common methods and procedures among them: the necessity of harmonization of approaches and requirements (especially with respect to the issues of monitoring and calculation of real savings from efficiency projects) is thus an essential factor for the exploitation of the efficiency potential and EU-MERCI is taking it into account in its activities. He also presented the results of a survey conducted by EU-MERCI on the market barriers and the impact perception of efficiency effects by industry.

Marcus Hofmann, from AEA, presented the criteria for the analysis of implemented energy efficiency projects in the industry, based on the national data sets from four different countries and six different supporting mechanisms: such data constitute the reference for the identification and selection of Good Practices of Energy Efficiency in the European Industry  processes, which is currently taking place and is the main objective of EU-MERCI.

Finally, Anna Realini from RSE and Alexander Farsan from CBT illustrated the concept of Good Practice according to EU-MERCI, i.e. an efficiency measure or combination of measures, really implemented, whose effectiveness can be tangibly measured vis-à-vis of pre-defined key performance indicators dealing, besides the energy savings, with economic and environment sustainability, as well as, with technology add value, productivity and competitiveness impact.

The second section of the conference was focussed on EU policy and investment issues related to efficiency in the industry and related implementation mechanisms.

Dario Di Santo, EU-MERCI partner from FIRE, presented the efforts of the EU to elaborate suitable policies aimed at the attainment of the demanding climate goals towards 2030 and beyond. EED, IED, ETS Directives, from one side, and the Energy Winter Package, from the other side, are fundamental to address efficiency measures and to cover the still high potential of savings in industry processes. EnMS and BAT provide the organization and technology tools for boosting energy efficiency and constitute reference for the identification and sharing of Good Practices.

The multiple benefits (e.g. competitiveness improvements, better quality of products) associated to the implementation of efficiency measures, were highlighted by Clemens Rohde, from the ISI Fraunhofer Institute, He showed the structure of the DEEP Platform, an open data base containing economic and technical data of thousands of efficiency cases in buildings and industry. DEEP is an outcome of the EEFig, an EU funded project/initiative focused on investments in efficiency. EU-MERCI is collaborating with EEfig in an optics of complementarity based on the exchange of the respective information on really implemented projects.

After that, Domenico Rotiroti from GSE described the Italian White Certificate Mechanism, which is the main support scheme in Italy for energy efficiency in industry and an important reference for the analysis of real efficiency measures done in EU-MERCI. The presentation provided a picture of the functioning of the overall mechanism and both the results and the energy fallouts obtained in the last years. Some exemplary energy efficiency projects in the Italian industrial sector were also shown, providing a suggestive support to the concept of Good practices currently elaborated by EU-MERCI.Finally, the third Section of the Conference was devoted to the presentation of the trends and needs of Energy Efficiency in the Italian Industry, which play a fundamental role to shape the outcome of EU-MERCI, providing a guidance on the most promising  and interesting sectors to analyze.

An overview of such trends was done by Corine Nsangwe Businge from RSE, who sketched a picture of industry as evolving at the Italian level; Filippo Cirilli from Centro Sviluppo Materiali S.p.A. and Massimiliano Boccardelli from SPES GEIE-Federalimentare made a specific focus, respectively, on the Iron&Steel and the Food&Beverage sectors. Such sectors, among others, have been selected as the most interesting ones and will be subject to the EU-MERCI analysis, thus a comparison with real actors operating on the field is fundamental for the validation of the obtained results.

The section was closed by Dimitra Mintsidis, from FEDERESCO, who made a presentation focussed on the role of ESCOs and their importance to promote energy efficiency in the industries, an aspect which is taken into account in the scope of EU-MERCI.

The final discussion recalled the themes emerged during the presentation and, in particular, a debate rose around the barriers encountered by ESCOs in supporting companies implementing efficiency projects. Difficulties are generally shared at the EU level, especially related to the access to the finance, generating the diffuse orientation to the self-funding by industries, as shown by the above mentioned EU-MERCI survey. Mechanisms like EPC, in place especially in building field, could be a valid reference: however, their application in the industry context is still under discussion. The debate also touched the issue of the harmonization of policies and rules at world level. Contradictory and dangerous rules were denounced with reference to the well-known Carbon Leakage phenomenon.

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