Italian white certificates scheme: the shift toward industry

Panel: 1. Programmes to promote industrial energy efficiency

This is a peer-reviewed paper.

Authors:
Dario Di Santo, FIRE, Italy
Enrico Biele, FIRE, Italy
Stefano D'Ambrosio, FIRE, Italy
Daniele Forni, FIRE, Italy
Giuseppe Tomassetti, FIRE, Italy

Abstract

The Italian white certificates scheme (WhC) has been in place for nine years and a lot of experience has been gathered. More than this, it has become an effective mechanism, mostly based on measured energy savings, to promote and implement energy efficiency in industry.

The scheme is based on an energy efficiency obligation, imposed on electricity and gas distributors, and on a tradable market for certificates, thus acting as an incentive for medium and large end-users and energy service companies (the voluntary parties).

The WhC targets started from 0.2 Mtoe/year in 2005 and shall reach 7.6 Mtoe/year in 2016, covering more than 60% of the national target set by the 2006/32/EC directive. After the first phase dominated by deemed saving projects - in particular CFL lamps and other civil sector applications - "progetti a consuntivo" (a.k.a. monitoring plans) in the industrial sector have started to rise under the effect of the "tau" coefficient, the multiplier introduced in 2011 that adds to the yearly additional savings the discounted future savings for technologies with a lifespan of more than 5 years (WhCs are usually released for a lifetime of 5 years).

The result has been dramatic: in 2013 around 95% of the certificates due to new projects has been related to energy efficiency in the industrial sector. An interesting point is that all this projects are monitored and savings are effectively measured through on-site metering.

The proposed paper shows in detail this transformation and how a WhC scheme has been able to become effective for industrial energy efficiency projects. The paper is based on an extensive research carried on from FIRE on monitoring plans, showing what kind of interventions have been implemented, how they performed compared to the expected savings, and what kind of advice can be given to other countries that are considering the introduction of an energy efficiency obligation (EEO) scheme according to the 2012/27/EU directive.