IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/enepol/v107y2017icp53-62.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Costs and benefits of Energy Efficiency Obligations: A review of European programmes

Author

Listed:
  • Rosenow, Jan
  • Bayer, Edith

Abstract

The economics of energy efficiency programmes have been subject to considerable academic debate lasting well over three decades now. In this paper, we contribute to this debate by reviewing the costs and benefits of a specific type of policy+ instrument that recently gained significant traction in Europe – Energy Efficiency Obligations - EEOs. Following the introduction of the EU Energy Efficiency Directive in 2012 the number of EEOs in Europe has grown from five schemes to now 16 EEOs in operation or planned across the EU. There is an emerging body of evidence on the costs and benefits of Energy Efficiency Obligations covering a wider range of EU countries, which offers an opportunity to improve our understanding of the economics of Energy Efficiency Obligations. In this paper, we draw on this new data and provide a) a comparative analysis of the costs and benefits of EEOs in a number of European countries, b) discuss the uncertainties and challenges around calculating the costs and benefits of Energy Efficiency Obligations, and c) provide a categorisation of the multiple benefits often overlooked in cost-benefit-analyses.

Suggested Citation

  • Rosenow, Jan & Bayer, Edith, 2017. "Costs and benefits of Energy Efficiency Obligations: A review of European programmes," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 107(C), pages 53-62.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:enepol:v:107:y:2017:i:c:p:53-62
    DOI: 10.1016/j.enpol.2017.04.014
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301421517302379
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.enpol.2017.04.014?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Mundaca, Luis & Neij, Lena, 2009. "A multi-criteria evaluation framework for tradable white certificate schemes," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(11), pages 4557-4573, November.
    2. Kenneth Gillingham & Richard G. Newell & Karen Palmer, 2009. "Energy Efficiency Economics and Policy," Annual Review of Resource Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 1(1), pages 597-620, September.
    3. Jan Stede, 2016. "Bridging the Industrial Energy Efficiency Gap: Assessing the Evidence from the Italian White Certificate Scheme," Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin 1565, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research.
    4. Hausman, Jerry A & Joskow, Paul L, 1982. "Evaluating the Costs and Benefits of Appliance Efficiency Standards," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 72(2), pages 220-225, May.
    5. Sutherland, Ronald J, 1996. "The economics of energy conservation policy," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 24(4), pages 361-370, April.
    6. Hunt Allcott & Michael Greenstone, 2012. "Is There an Energy Efficiency Gap?," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 26(1), pages 3-28, Winter.
    7. repec:hal:ciredw:hal-01016112 is not listed on IDEAS
    8. Atsu, Divine & Agyemang, Emmanuel Okoh & Tsike, Stephen A.K., 2016. "Solar electricity development and policy support in Ghana," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 792-800.
    9. ., 2016. "Electric energy utilities," Chapters, in: Public Utilities, Second Edition, chapter 4, pages 69-88, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    10. Paul L. Joskow & Donald B. Marron, 1992. "What Does a Negawatt Really Cost? Evidence from Utility Conservation Programs," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 4), pages 41-74.
    11. Langniss, Ole & Praetorius, Barbara, 2006. "How much market do market-based instruments create? An analysis for the case of "white" certificates," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 34(2), pages 200-211, January.
    12. Louis-Gaëtan Giraudet & Luc Bodineau & Dominique Finon, 2011. "The costs and benefits of white certificates schemes," CIRED Working Papers hal-00866420, HAL.
    13. Metcalf, Gilbert E., 1994. "Economics and rational conservation policy," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 22(10), pages 819-825, October.
    14. Oikonomou, Vlasis & Jepma, Catrinus & Becchis, Franco & Russolillo, Daniele, 2008. "White Certificates for energy efficiency improvement with energy taxes: A theoretical economic model," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 30(6), pages 3044-3062, November.
    15. Fuerst, Franz & McAllister, Patrick & Nanda, Anupam & Wyatt, Peter, 2015. "Does energy efficiency matter to home-buyers? An investigation of EPC ratings and transaction prices in England," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 145-156.
    16. Mundaca, Luis, 2007. "Transaction costs of Tradable White Certificate schemes: The Energy Efficiency Commitment as case study," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 35(8), pages 4340-4354, August.
    17. Mihai Burcea & Wing-Kai Hon & Hsiang-Hsuan Liu & Prudence W. H. Wong & David K. Y. Yau, 2016. "Scheduling for electricity cost in a smart grid," Journal of Scheduling, Springer, vol. 19(6), pages 687-699, December.
    18. Sorrell, Steve & Harrison, David & Radov, Daniel & Klevnas, Per & Foss, Andrew, 2009. "White certificate schemes: Economic analysis and interactions with the EU ETS," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(1), pages 29-42, January.
    19. Blumstein, Carl & Krieg, Betsy & Schipper, Lee & York, Carl, 1980. "Overcoming social and institutional barriers to energy conservation," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 5(4), pages 355-371.
    20. Clemens Rohde & Jan Rosenow & Nick Eyre & Louis-Gaëtan Giraudet, 2015. "Energy saving obligations—cutting the Gordian Knot of leverage?," Post-Print hal-01016112, HAL.
    21. Bertoldi, Paolo & Rezessy, Silvia & Lees, Eoin & Baudry, Paul & Jeandel, Alexandre & Labanca, Nicola, 2010. "Energy supplier obligations and white certificate schemes: Comparative analysis of experiences in the European Union," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(3), pages 1455-1469, March.
    22. Adam B. Jaffe & Robert N. Stavins, 1994. "Energy-Efficiency Investments and Public Policy," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 2), pages 43-66.
    23. Jaffe, Adam B. & Stavins, Robert N., 1994. "The energy-efficiency gap What does it mean?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 22(10), pages 804-810, October.
    24. Rosenow, Jan, 2012. "Energy savings obligations in the UK—A history of change," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 373-382.
    25. Jan Rosenow, Cor Leguijt, Zsuzsanna Pato, Nick Eyre, and Tina Fawcet, 2016. "An ex-ante evaluation of the EU Energy Efficiency Directive - Article 7," Economics of Energy & Environmental Policy, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 2).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Andra Blumberga & Reinis Āzis & Dāvis Reinbergs & Ieva Pakere & Dagnija Blumberga, 2021. "The Bright and Dark Sides of Energy Efficiency Obligation Scheme: The Case of Latvia," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(15), pages 1-20, July.
    2. Krutwig Michael C. & Tanțău Adrian, 2018. "Obligatory versus voluntary energy audits: are there differences in quality?," Proceedings of the International Conference on Business Excellence, Sciendo, vol. 12(1), pages 522-532, May.
    3. Dong, Kangyin & Dou, Yue & Jiang, Qingzhe, 2022. "Income inequality, energy poverty, and energy efficiency: Who cause who and how?," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 179(C).
    4. Wang, Zhaoxia & Zhu, Han & Ding, Yan & Zhu, Tianli & Zhu, Neng & Tian, Zhe, 2018. "Energy efficiency evaluation of key energy consumption sectors in China based on a macro-evaluating system," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 153(C), pages 65-79.
    5. Schleich, Joachim & Faure, Corinne & Meissner, Thomas, 2021. "Adoption of retrofit measures among homeowners in EU countries: The effects of access to capital and debt aversion," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 149(C).
    6. Chia-Nan Wang & Thi-Duong Nguyen & Min-Chun Yu, 2019. "Energy Use Efficiency Past-to-Future Evaluation: An International Comparison," Energies, MDPI, vol. 12(19), pages 1-15, October.
    7. Saunders, Harry D. & Roy, Joyashree & Azevedo, Inês M.L. & Chakravarty, Debalina & Dasgupta, Shyamasree & De La Rue Du Can, Stephane & Druckman, Angela & Fouquet, Roger & Grubb, Michael & Lin, Boqiang, 2021. "Energy efficiency: what has research delivered in the last 40 years?," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 114344, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    8. Oliver O. Apeh & Edson L. Meyer & Ochuko K. Overen, 2022. "Contributions of Solar Photovoltaic Systems to Environmental and Socioeconomic Aspects of National Development—A Review," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(16), pages 1-28, August.
    9. Liping Liao & Chukun Huang & Minzhe Du, 2022. "The Effect of Energy Quota Trading on Energy Saving in China: Insight from a Quasi-Natural Experiment," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(22), pages 1-17, November.
    10. Paolo Bertoldi & Marina Economidou & Valentina Palermo & Benigna Boza‐Kiss & Valeria Todeschi, 2021. "How to finance energy renovation of residential buildings: Review of current and emerging financing instruments in the EU," Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Energy and Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 10(1), January.
    11. Katarzyna Grondys & Armenia Androniceanu & Zdzisława Dacko-Pikiewicz, 2020. "Energy Management in the Operation of Enterprises in the Light of the Applicable Provisions of the Energy Efficiency Directive (2012/27/EU)," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(17), pages 1-16, August.
    12. Philippe Quirion, 2020. "Les "instruments de marché" dans la lutte contre le changement climatique : quel bilan après 20 ans ?," Post-Print hal-03100296, HAL.
    13. Carvallo, Juan Pablo & Murphy, Sean P. & Stuart, Elizabeth & Larsen, Peter H. & Goldman, Charles, 2019. "Evaluating project level investment trends for the U.S. ESCO industry: 1990–2017," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 130(C), pages 139-161.
    14. Franzò, Simone & Frattini, Federico & Cagno, Enrico & Trianni, Andrea, 2019. "A multi-stakeholder analysis of the economic efficiency of industrial energy efficiency policies: Empirical evidence from ten years of the Italian White Certificate Scheme," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 240(C), pages 424-435.
    15. Kangas, Hanna-Liisa & Lazarevic, David & Kivimaa, Paula, 2018. "Technical skills, disinterest and non-functional regulation: Barriers to building energy efficiency in Finland viewed by energy service companies," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 114(C), pages 63-76.
    16. Lana Ollier & Marc Melliger & Johan Lilliestam, 2020. "Friends or Foes? Political Synergy or Competition between Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Policy," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(23), pages 1-23, December.
    17. Martin K. Patel & Jean-Sébastien Broc & Haein Cho & Daniel Cabrera & Armin Eberle & Alessandro Federici & Alisa Freyre & Cédric Jeanneret & Kapil Narula & Vlasios Oikonomou & Selin Yilmaz, 2021. "Why We Continue to Need Energy Efficiency Programmes—A Critical Review Based on Experiences in Switzerland and Elsewhere," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(6), pages 1-28, March.
    18. Dina A. Zaki & Mohamed Hamdy, 2022. "A Review of Electricity Tariffs and Enabling Solutions for Optimal Energy Management," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(22), pages 1-17, November.
    19. Tziogas, Charalampos & Papadopoulos, Agis & Georgiadis, Patroklos, 2021. "Policy implementation and energy-saving strategies for the residential sector: The case of the Greek Energy Refurbishment program," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 149(C).
    20. Rosenow, Jan & Skoczkowski, Tadeusz & Thomas, Samuel & Węglarz, Arkadiusz & Stańczyk, Wojciech & Jędra, Michał, 2020. "Evaluating the Polish White Certificate scheme," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 144(C).
    21. Paolo Sospiro & Leonardo Nibbi & Marco Ciro Liscio & Maurizio De Lucia, 2021. "Cost–Benefit Analysis of Pumped Hydroelectricity Storage Investment in China," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(24), pages 1-20, December.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Louis-Gaetan Giraudet and Dominique Finon, 2015. "European experiences with white certifirecate obligations: A critical review of existing evaluations," Economics of Energy & Environmental Policy, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 1).
    2. Louis-Gaëtan Giraudet & D. Finon, 2014. "European experiences with white certificate obligations: A critical review of existing evaluations," Working Papers hal-01016110, HAL.
    3. Anil Markandya & Xavier Labandeira & Ana Ramos, 2013. "Policy Instruments to Foster Energy Efficiency," Working Papers 01-2014, Economics for Energy.
    4. Franzò, Simone & Frattini, Federico & Cagno, Enrico & Trianni, Andrea, 2019. "A multi-stakeholder analysis of the economic efficiency of industrial energy efficiency policies: Empirical evidence from ten years of the Italian White Certificate Scheme," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 240(C), pages 424-435.
    5. Häckel, Björn & Pfosser, Stefan & Tränkler, Timm, 2017. "Explaining the energy efficiency gap - Expected Utility Theory versus Cumulative Prospect Theory," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 111(C), pages 414-426.
    6. Pedro Linares & Xavier Labandeira, 2010. "Energy Efficiency: Economics And Policy," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 24(3), pages 573-592, July.
    7. Kenneth Gillingham & Karen Palmer, 2014. "Bridging the Energy Efficiency Gap: Policy Insights from Economic Theory and Empirical Evidence," Review of Environmental Economics and Policy, Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 8(1), pages 18-38, January.
    8. Giraudet, Louis-Gaëtan, 2020. "Energy efficiency as a credence good: A review of informational barriers to energy savings in the building sector," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 87(C).
    9. Louis-Gaëtan Giraudet & Antoine Missemer, 2023. "The History of Energy Efficiency in Economics: Breakpoints and Regularities," Post-Print halshs-02301636, HAL.
    10. Sutherland, Ronald J, 1996. "The economics of energy conservation policy," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 24(4), pages 361-370, April.
    11. Moser, Simon, 2017. "Overestimation of savings in energy efficiency obligation schemes," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 121(C), pages 599-605.
    12. Stede, Jan, 2017. "Bridging the industrial energy efficiency gap – Assessing the evidence from the Italian white certificate scheme," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 104(C), pages 112-123.
    13. Boyd, Gale A. & Curtis, E. Mark, 2014. "Evidence of an “Energy-Management Gap” in U.S. manufacturing: Spillovers from firm management practices to energy efficiency," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 68(3), pages 463-479.
    14. Rabindra Nepal & Tooraj Jamasb & Clement Allan Tisdell, 2014. "Market-related reforms and increased energy efficiency in transition countries: empirical evidence," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 46(33), pages 4125-4136, November.
    15. Fleiter, Tobias & Schleich, Joachim & Ravivanpong, Ployplearn, 2012. "Adoption of energy-efficiency measures in SMEs—An empirical analysis based on energy audit data from Germany," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 863-875.
    16. Louis-Gaëtan Giraudet & Sébastien Houde & Joseph Maher, 2018. "Moral Hazard and the Energy Efficiency Gap: Theory and Evidence," Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, University of Chicago Press, vol. 5(4), pages 755-790.
    17. Rockstuhl, Sebastian & Wenninger, Simon & Wiethe, Christian & Häckel, Björn, 2021. "Understanding the risk perception of energy efficiency investments: Investment perspective vs. energy bill perspective," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 159(C).
    18. Safarzadeh, Soroush & Hafezalkotob, Ashkan & Jafari, Hamed, 2022. "Energy supply chain empowerment through tradable green and white certificates: A pathway to sustainable energy generation," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 323(C).
    19. Costa-Campi, María Teresa & García-Quevedo, José & Segarra, Agustí, 2015. "Energy efficiency determinants: An empirical analysis of Spanish innovative firms," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 83(C), pages 229-239.
    20. Hesselink, Laurens X.W. & Chappin, Emile J.L., 2019. "Adoption of energy efficient technologies by households – Barriers, policies and agent-based modelling studies," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 99(C), pages 29-41.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:enepol:v:107:y:2017:i:c:p:53-62. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/enpol .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.