Energy: more than 5 million tonnes of oil equivalent were saved
Milan, January 08, 2010
Italian versionIn less than five years (January 2005 to November 2009), as a result of an increasingly efficient use of energy promoted by white certificates, more than five million tonnes of oil equivalent (toe) were saved - with an acceleration in the last year in particular. In further detail, more than two million toe relate to the period from June 2008 to May 2009, in which almost half of the overall savings were made; it was as if two thermal power plants of 600 MW each had been "switched off" for a full year, which avoided the emission of more than 5 million tonnes of carbon dioxide.
This is the picture drawn in the Fourth Annual Report on the market mechanism of white certificates (or ‘energy efficiency certificates'). This mechanism is proving to be particularly effective and efficient in favouring savings and improving the Italian energy system sustainability and competitiveness.
The Report shows that, with highly contained cost levels (2.8 euro per household in 2008), the direct benefits that can be reaped by participants in an energy efficiency project are 5 to 100 times the incurred costs. In addition, the analysis shows that each tonne of oil equivalent saved results in lower costs in the range of 118 to 587 euro for the achievement of national and European targets of greenhouse gas emission containment and development of renewable energy sources.
"The data confirmed that the innovative market mechanism of white certificates, the first and most comprehensive example in Europe, translates into immediate benefit to consumers' finances, reduces the national energy bill and favours the competitiveness of Italian enterprises," said Mr. Alessandro Ortis, President of the Italian Energy Regulator. "Moreover, with the optimum cost-benefit ratio so far observed and the further development potentials, white certificates significantly contribute to environment protection and pollutant emission containment".
Major interventions, for the degree of savings obtained, pertained to domestic lighting and the purchase of low-consumption household appliances, public lighting and the installation of more efficient conditioning and heating systems. In particular, the Fourth Report suggests that, in the period under review, 82% of overall savings were obtained in the domestic sector and in the tertiary although the share of certified energy savings in industry has doubled (from 5% to 10%); whereas the remaining 8% was obtained in the operation of public lighting and district heating services.
The Fourth Report in detail
The Report (available on website www.autorita.energia.it) further contains a detailed analysis on the functioning of the white certificate market (white certificate exchange) suggesting that it is a fundamental element for economic efficiency and the transparency of the incentive mechanism and constitutes a proven and reliable platform which a growing number of operators are now using.
Differently from the criticalities observed in the previous Annual Reports, many issues seem to have been overcome following the regulatory interventions introduced in late 2007: the types of interventions have grown and this went hand in hand with increased liquidity in Exchange dealings and reduced volatility in the certificate prices; the sector of energy utilities is showing signs of gradual strengthening and the concentration trend in the demand for certificates has fallen to the advantage of the economic efficiency of the system.
Further, the Authority has made the requirements for access to incentives more stringent, with due account taken of a number of criticalities emerged in the evaluation and control of saving projects. For the future, the Authority has also made a number of proposals in order to make white certificates even more effective in order to achieve the saving targets fixed by the legislator until 2012 and contribute to the fulfilment of commitments made at European level at more contained costs.
Finally, the Authority authorised (by resolution EEN 24/09) the disbursement of nearly 207 million euro in favour of electricity and gas distributors having achieved their saving targets for 2008 or those having compensated for slight non-conformities recorded in 2007. It should also be noted that, although the white certificates available on the closing date of their forth year of operation were in excess of those needed for the fulfilment of 2008 targets, eight out of the 76 distributors subject to the obligations of ministerial decrees did not deliver sufficient white certificates to fully achieve their own target and two were fully noncompliant.
All noncompliant distributors will have to remedy the noncompliance in the course of regulatory year 2009 (which will close on 31 May 2010) while, for the two totally noncompliant distributors, sanctioning procedures will also be initiated.