The objectives of this workshop were to present and discuss the new resources and pilot case developed in the ENEFIRST Plus project to implement the Energy Efficiency First (EE1st) principle in Cost-Benefit Analysis (CBA). The Energy Efficiency First (EE1st) principle has been adopted in the EU legislation as part of the Governance Regulation in December 2018, first with a strong link with the National Energy and Climate Plans. Since 2018, the revisions of EU laws dealing with energy have all introduced a reference to the EE1st principle.
The new Energy Efficiency Directive (EU)2023/1791 clarifies that it is an overarching principle for all planning, policies and major investments having an impact on energy consumption. Article 3(5) of the EED and the Commission’s Recommendation on EE1st (EU) 2021/1749 emphasise the role of Cost-Benefit Analysis (CBA) for implementing the EE1st principle. This is why the ENEFIRST Plus project considers CBA methodologies as key resources for the implementation of EE1st, looking at how these methodologies can align with EE1st.
One of the main objectives of the project is to develop and test resources that can help stakeholders with the implementation of EE1st. More specifically about CBA, ENEFIRST Plus’ partner Fraunhofer ISI has developed: A CBA Guidebook organised around 9 core Issues (e.g. full range of efficiency options; societal perspective; risk & uncertainty; distributional effects). A companion CBA Excel Tool that shows, step-by-step, how each Issue influences results (illustrated with a local heat-planning example).
The related pilot case was done by ENEFIRST Plus’ partner EIHP investigating the difference made by applying EE1st in a CBA for an investment in the electricity transmission grid in Croatia (compared to a classical CBA). Find the tool here.
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