Design of Energy Efficiency Obligation scheme (EEO)
The Italian white certificates scheme (WhC) was introduced by the Ministerial Decrees D.M. 24 April 2001.
Type of measures: Since the beginning the idea was to consider all the energy efficiency technologies (except improvement of the energy performance for electric power plants) and all the sectors.
Obliged parties: Distributed system operators an electricity or gas distributor with more than 50,000 end – users.
Target setting: total of 25,502 Mtoe for the period 2014 – 2020, at least 60% coming from WhCs scheme. Each DSO should produce a certain amount of WhCs taking into consideration the total amount of the energy distributed in that year.
Calculation method savings: Three calculation methods have been set:deemed saving projects (that do not require meters), simplified monitoring plans (that require one or more meters and whose savings are granted based on the monitoring plan indicated in the related file issued by the GSE) and more monitoring plan projects (for project where it is not possible to apply the two first methods).
Additionality: Only additional savings are considered in the Italian scheme, which means that additional savings are evaluated with respect to a standard market baseline, depending on the solution and/or sector under consideration.
Monitoring & Verification: The body in charge of monitoring and control is GSE, which can act with the support of ENEA and RSE. Controls are conducted on the documentation and on - site.
Control and Compliance: in case a DSO does not fulfill at least 60% of its annual target, AEEGSI will inflict a fine case by case approach on the basis of the lacking certificates and on the market situation. If 60% of the DSO target is reached, no fine can be applied. In both cases the following year target of the defaulting DSO is increased by the amount of lacking certificates.
Administrator - Institutional set up: The rules of the scheme and its guidelines are defined by the MiSEin cooperation with the MATTM with the support from the AEEGSI. GSE is in charge of the operative management of the scheme since 2012, with the support of ENEA and RSE for the evaluation of proposals.
Flexibility: The main flexibility option for the scheme is the possibility for the obliged parties to seek for certificates on the market, instead of providing directly. Another important flexibility for obliged DSOs is the possibility to cover each year 60 - 100% of their target without penalties.
For the full Report on the Italian EEO scheme click here.
Proposed alternative measures
Italy has proposed three different policy measures in order to achieve its energy efficiency targets.
In addition to the WhCs scheme, two other policy measures are provided by Italian legislation at national level as alternative policies:
- Tax deductions
- Thermal account.
White certificates, tax deductions and thermal account, even if applicable on similar energy efficiency measures, cannot be summed up and thus double accounting is not permitted (and it is verified within control and verification activities).
Both the alternative measures provided by the Italian legislation cover the building sector. Tax deductions refer mainly to the residential sector (thermal RES and energy efficiency), due to its fiscal characteristics, whereas the thermal account covers both the public sector (thermal RES and energy efficiency) and the residential sector (thermal RES only). Double accounting for the residential sector is ensured through specific declarations from the applicant and through documental and spot on-site verification. Both measures support traditional energy efficiency technologies related to the building envelope and the energy plants (boilers, heat pumps, solar collector, etc.). They do not explicitly take into account the additionality of savings.
Installers, ESCOs, technology producers are all interested in utilizing these policy measures to increase their business opportunities, even if concerning the tax deductions, the government is worried about the impact on taxes (in terms of loss of revenues for the State), even if many studies state the higher benefits (in terms of global market, taxes paid by involved stakeholders and reduction of black labor). For this reason tax deductions are subjected every year to a potential and drastic revision (even to a possible abolition). The Government has currently extended the action through 2015 (up to June 2016 for actions on the common parts of buildings) but it has already decided to revise it, with a view of rationalizing expenditure and ensuring an adequate duration of the scheme, instead of a year-by-year extension.
For the full Report on the Italian alternative measures planned click here.
Country-Context profile
Italian GDP has been constantly growing in the first years of 2000 until 2007 and since then the country has been facing an economic recession phase, interrupted only in the years 2010 –2011, which is still going on. GDP level collapsed in 2009, falling almost to the level of 2001; it recovered in the two following years and decreasing again in 2012 to the 2001 level and below. In the same years, energy consumption followed the GDP trend facing a strong decrease in 2009, recovering in 2010 but then decreasing again in the following years.
Making a comparison between the levels of energy prices (electricity and natural gas prices) in all EU28 and in Italy in the period of time 2011 – 2013, the level of Italian energy prices is always above the European average in the households and residential sectors.The Italian energy dependency rate shows the extent to which an economy or a country depends on primary energy sources imports in order to meet its energy needs. Italy has a very high energy dependency rate (almost 80-85% of its natural primary sources on average including oil, natural gas and solid fuels) comes from imported sources. Concerning the government debt, the Italian one is the third highest one after Greece and Portugal out of all the EU countries,which have a threshold of 60% (even if the trend between 2012 and 2013 has been an increase of the debt for almost half of the EU28). Having a very high public debt level, it nullifies the effect of higher taxes revenues that could be used to sustain the economic growth. For this reason, the cut of the debt should be among the top priorities of the country economic policies, but this is a difficult achievement due to the economic stagnation and the GDP trends.
The situation of the Italian economy has been in a negative phase during most of 2014, and it is foreseen to return in a positive phase by mid 2015 by the OECD. The main driver will be represented by the raise of investments that will support the increase of exports and consequently of the internal growth. The evolution of the economic key indicators at world level will obviously impact on the development of the European and Italian markets.
For the full Context Profile of Italy please click here
