Evaluation into Practice to Achieve Targets for Energy Efficiency

Project Information

EPATEE

Grant agreement ID: 746265

DOI

10.3030/746265

Project closed

EC signature date 20 April 2017

Start date 1 May 2017

End date 31 October 2019

Funded under

• SOCIETAL CHALLENGES - Secure, clean and efficient energy

Total cost

€ 1 565 566,25

EU contribution

€ 1 565 566,25

Coordinated by

ÖSTERREICHISCHE ENERGIEAGENTUR - AUSTRIAN ENERGY AGENCY
Austria

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - EPATEE (Evaluation into Practice to Achieve Targets for Energy Efficiency)

Reporting period: 2018-09-01 to 2019-10-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

The EU Directives on energy efficiency such as the Energy Efficiency Directive (EED) or the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD) trigger a great variety of policies in EU Member States. But how effective are these policies in achieving energy savings targets? Several barriers limit policy evaluation and thus hinder target-based adaptions of energy efficiency policies. This results in a lack of quantitative data, and impedes evidence-based analysis required to distinguish effective from ineffective energy efficiency policies. This information is a pre-requisite for creating new and adapting existing policies in order to achieve the energy related targets of the European Union.
EPATEE aims at tackling this problem by raising the capacity of policymakers and implementers. The project provides them both with tools and with practical knowledge to make effective impact evaluation an integral part of the policy cycle. It supports EU Member States in distinguishing effective from ineffective policies. EPATEE makes use of existing evaluation experiences in a range of instruments, such as energy efficiency obligation schemes, regulations, financial incentives and voluntary agreements. Experience sharing is the core of the project. Lessons learnt from other EU initiatives and good practices in how to successfully evaluate the impact and cost-effectiveness of such energy efficiency policies provide the basis for the development of guidelines and good practice evaluation tools.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

The project is organised in two parallel phases:
1. A tools building phase: a review of existing knowledge and analysis of available ex-post impact evaluations was organized to structure a synthesis on good evaluation practices, which were used to build a smart online toolbox for good evaluation practices. A set of 20 to 30 tools enabling state-of-the art evaluation are developed and integrated in this online toolbox, which is interactively assisting users in picking the most relevant tool for their specific needs.
2. An experience sharing and capacity building phase: peer learning workshops and webinars are organised for national authorities and energy efficiency policy stakeholders. The experience sharing events allow discussing the main issues related to policy evaluation practice and feed the tools building phase. In total 9 workshops and 6 webinars will be organized both on national and EU-level. Ad hoc support will be given to policymakers directly in preparing or practicing good policy evaluations.


The main activities of the project so far comprise:
- Interviews and surveys with key stakeholders to identity needs and challenges as regards policy evaluation. The outputs from these activities served as the basis for the development of the EPATEE support tools
- 2 EU peer-learning workshops in autumn 2017 and spring 2018 where policy makers and other stakeholders met to discuss experiences and good-practices in policy evaluation
- 2 webinars on specific topics of policy evaluation
- A knowledge base that serves as a library on existing policy evaluation studies www.epatee-lib.eu/. Insights from the knowledge base are summarised in a comprehensive report that is available on the EPATEE website
- A set of case studies on evaluation practices including a synthesis report summarising the main insights from these cases.
- The beta version of the online toolbox. By now the online toolbox is public at www.epatee-toolbox.eu. The toolbox is intended to help users with selected issues of policy evaluation offers either general or specific support
- Guidelines on how to integrate evaluation into the policy cycle
- Presentations of the project at various national and international conferences and workshops including ECEEE and IEPEC.
All reports can be downloaded from the EPATEE website: epatee.eu/reports

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

The second project period will serve at the dissemination and further refinement of the project outputs. Another 2 EU peer-learning workshop as well as 5 national peer-learning workshops and a final conference will be organised. In addition 4 further webinars will add to building up an experience exchange community on policy evaluation.
Overall the project partners will attend and actively participate in various workshops and conferences with at least 20 presentations.
Special emphasis in the second phase of the project is put on finding ways to secure the impact of the results beyond the project’s lifetime. The consortium will analyse different options to ensure this target.
In a broader sense the project contributes to more evidence based approaches of Member States in evaluating their energy efficiency policies e.g. in relation to the Governance Regulation of the Energy Union.

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