Energy efficiency

ECN Policy Studies researches the energy savings that could be realised in the future (contact Bert Daniëls) and how much has actually been saved (contact Piet Boonekamp), as a result of energy saving policy or for other reasons. Next to analyses on a Dutch level, much work is done on the European level, because increasingly more energy policy is being formulated there.

Introductory information on saving in the energy system and on policy can be found in a presentation (available in Dutch and in English), or you can visit the Frequently Asked Questions (in Dutch) page.

Policy measures

ECN supports Dutch energy policy with various studies on the effects of policy measures aimed at promoting energy saving.

The evaluation of the Clean and Efficient programme of 2007 (in Dutch) examines the effects and costs of policy measures that focus on realising targets for energy and climate. More information is available in this report (in Dutch).

The study on Instruments for energy saving (in Dutch) maps the policy instruments that are needed to accelerate the Dutch energy saving pace from 1% to 2% per year and lists the costs and the policy bottlenecks that need to be addressed.

The policy measures that have been implemented in the Netherlands and other European countries are described in the MURE database. These measures are categorised into levies, subsidies or information for various sectors, including Households, Industry, Services and Transport

Monitoring & Evaluation

Monitoring involves the observation of changes in energy use and energy saving activities and is conducted predominantly by Statistics Netherlands and NLAgency. ECN gathers data on electrical appliances for the HOME database.

The energy saving that is realised in the Netherlands is calculated in accordance with the Protocol Monitoring Energy Saving (PME). You can find the most up to date results in this report (in Dutch).

Energy saving data for the Netherlands, which are comparable to those of other European countries, are available in the Odyssee database of energy indicators.

Consumption developments can be divided into the effects of more activities (growth), changes in the nature of the activities (structure) and the effect of energy saving. The MONIT analysis tool divides the changes in use in 14 factors.

Evaluation involves interpreting the trends in saving and determining the saving effects of policy. This is done for the past, as for example in the ARK report, and for future developments, as for example in the Reference projections.

Policy Studies has developed a new approach to monitoring & evaluation of realised savings, This approach deploys simulation models for setting up and calculating energy scenarios. For more information, please contact Piet Boonekamp.

Projects

• PME: annual calculation and analysis of realized energy savings in the Netherlands, per sector and at national level, according to the Protocol Monitoring Energy savings.
• Assessment EED-2011: mid-term evaluation of current accomplishments and assessment of policy cases, for the proposed Energy Efficiency Directive (EED) of the EC (project  Background study on horizontal issues concerning energy savings in the EU).
• M&E system: setting up a monitoring & evaluation system, using existing simulation models for energy scenarios, to evaluate realised energy savings and policy contributions.
• Standard on savings calculations: European standard to be used in the evaluation of the NEEAPs of European countries. ECN contribution to CEN standard regards integrating top-down and bottom-up methods
• Odyssee-MURE: update of energy indicators for the Netherlands and improvement of the Odyssee indicators. Update of Dutch policy measures on energy savings and improvement of the MURE database on policy measures (contribution Odyssee/MURE).
• Set up NEEAP: calculation of savings as input for the National Energy Efficiency Action Plan for the EC, both expected (NEEAP, 2007) and realised savings (NEEAP, 2011).
• Assessment EEAP: analysis of the impact of actions and options for promoting energy efficiency for the EU Energy Efficiency Action Plan 2006.

Publications

• Energiebesparing in Nederland 1995-2007, inclusief decompositie energieverbruikstrend (in Dutch), August 2009.
• Energy Efficiency Action Plan for the Netherlands - Elaboration on methods and results (first NEEAP), January 2008.
• Impact Assessment on the Future Action Plan for Energy Efficiency - Final report, June 2006. 
• Gerealiseerde energiebesparing 1995-2002 (inclusief beschrijving methode Protocol Monitoring Energiebesparing) (in Dutch), August 2004.
• Reference projection energy and emissions 2010-2020, April 2010. 
• Verkenning Schoon en Zuinig (in Dutch), April 2009. 
• Monitor Schoon en Zuinig - Stand van zaken 2010 (nationale energie- en klimaatbeleid) (in Dutch), April 2010.
• EU-27 Energy efficiency trends and Policy developments - Households & Tertiary sectors. Lessons from the ODYSSEE/MURE project, August 2009.
• Price elasticities, policy measures and actual developments in household energy consumption - A bottom up analysis for the Netherlands, Energy Economics (Elsevier), March 2007, Volume 29, Issue 2, p.133-1.
• Energy efficiency and savings calculation - Top-down and bottom-up methods  (CEN standard prEN16212), October 2011, CEN.
• Harmonised calculation of energy savings for the ESD: development and assessment of a combined bottom-up and top-down approach (Work package 6.1 of EMEEES project). Boonekamp, P.G.M. (ECN) and S. Thomas (WI); EIE-06-128 EMEEES, April 2009
• Instrumenten voor energiebesparing. Achtergronddocument instrumentatie energiebesparingsmaatregelen uit het Optiedocument energie en emissies 2010/2020 (in Dutch), August 2007. 
• Energy and emission monitoring for policy use. Trend analysis with reconstructed energy balances.  Boonekamp, P.G.M.; Energy Policy, 2004, Ed.32, p.969-988.

PME: Protocol Monitoring Energy saving

When establishing the realised savings according to the protocol, the following areas are distinguished:

• Final use of the end use sectors.
• Conversion in the end use sectors, including CHP production.
• Energy supply, particularly electricity.

Savings in end use are defined as the difference between the realised use and the reference use (see Figure below). This is the (theoretical) use that would take place without savings. The reference use is estimated on the basis of the growth of the activities, for example the production of cement or the car mileage.

Savings through CHP production are determined by comparing the CHP input with the saving on use resulting from separate generation of heat by a boiler and electricity by power plants.

The conversion losses are determined per type of power plant (coal, waste incineration, nuclear and gas), both for the current efficiency and for the efficiency of the reference year. The difference, summed over all types of power plants, constitutes the saving. This is not influenced by shifts in the fuel mix.

More information can be found in this report (in Dutch) from 2004.

MONIT analysis tool

MONIT contains historic energy balances and energy balances for future years based on scenario calculations. Energy balances can be constructed that reflect the effect of a certain factor, for example economic growth, an increase (or not) in CHP production or a change (or not) in the fuel mix. The constructed balances can be used to make a decomposition of the changes in use divided in 14 factors (the figure below illustrates the change of the total energy use in the period 1995-2007).

The change is divided into:

• A national volume effect indicated as growth in GDP.
• Various structure effects, including substitution between energy carriers and import and export of energy carriers.
• Various saving effects: in final use and CHP and for end users and in the energy sector.

The decomposition takes place for all sectors and energy carriers. A more elaborate description can be found in the journal Energy Policy.