In a joint letter with the value chain, ECI highlights electrical installations as the backbone of decarbonised buildings and call the Commission to ensure that the EPBD will make them safe, ready, efficient and smart
Our associations and companies are gathering the whole value chain enabling an efficient decarbonisation of buildings via electrification, which as stated in the energy system integration strategy is expected to play a key role in buildings. The upcoming revision of the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD) is a unique opportunity to ensure buildings are ready for this electrification and can contribute to a decarbonised energy system. With this letter we would like to stress the importance for the EPBD to better consider in-building electrical installations as the backbone of decarbonised buildings, and to share our recommendation to ensure their safety, future-readiness, efficiency and smartness.
We recommend using the different tools of the existing EPBD (Long Term Renovation Strategies, Energy Performance Certificate, Smart Readiness Indicators, Inspections) and the tools considered during its revision (Building Renovation Passport, Minimum Energy Performance Standards, Deep Energy Renovation Standard) to ensure that the renovation of the building stock adequately address electrical installations:
– Deploy national electrical inspection regimes and electrical safety checks in dwellings according to national wiring rules, as called by the EU Parliament in the EPBD Implementation Report
– Incorporate requirements and indicators of readiness of electrical installations for full (staged) decarbonisation and provide this information to property owners
– Include electrical installations in the definition of Technical Building Systems (TBS) and point to the relevant economic optimisation standards for their dimensioning. Consider TBS on equal footing with technologies related to the building envelope within the EPBD
– Mainstream Building Automation and Control Systems, smart EV charging, real time energy monitoring and smart meters
– Introduce a metric to quantify the demand side flexibility at building and/or district level.
Click to view the Joint Letter and its Annex here.
