DIRECTIVE (EU) 2018/844

The main rationale for Directive (EU) 2018/844 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 30 May 2018 amending Directive 2010/31/EU on the energy performance of buildings and Directive 2012/27/EU on energy efficiency is tapping the potential for decarbonization that the EU building stock offers: as the European Commission web page on buildings points out, approximately 40% of energy consumption and 36% of CO₂ emissions in the EU originate from buildings. However, a few provisions of the new Directive have a direct bearing on the adaptation of the energy sector. The new Directive reinforces the policy framework on energy efficiency so far set by the Energy Efficiency Directive of 2012 (EED) and by the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive of 2010 (EPBD). The main developments brought about by the amendment are, according to the cited website:

• The obligation for EU countries to establish stronger long-term renovation strategies;
• A common European scheme for rating the smart readiness of buildings;
• The further promotion of smart technologies, including on devices that regulate temperature at room level;
• The support of e-mobility through minimum requirements for large buildings’ car parks and for smaller buildings;
• the obligation of cross-national comparability of national energy performance requirements;
• the promotion of health and well-being of building users.

 The following aspects of the revised text are relevant for adaptation:

• In Paragraph 17 of the preamble, the relevance of green measures to reduce cooling needs is mentioned: “Solutions based on nature, such as well-planned street vegetation, green roofs and walls providing insulation and shade to buildings, contribute to reducing energy demand by limiting the need for heating and cooling and improving a building’s energy performance”.
• Paragraph 2 of Annex 1A, calls for the development of a methodology for an indicator of smart-readiness of building, which under recital (c) should take into account “the flexibility of a building’s overall electricity demand, including its ability to enable participation in active and passive as well as implicit and explicit demand response, in relation to the grid, for example through flexibility and load shifting capacities”. Such contribution to flexibility of the electrical grids is expected to increase the overall resilience of the system and hence its ability to adapt to climate change impacts on the transmission and distribution grids.