Concerted Action EPBD V

Project Information

CAV_EPBD

Grant agreement ID: 820497

DOI

10.3030/820497

Project closed

EC signature date 28 May 2018

Start date 1 May 2018

End date 31 October 2022

Funded under

• SOCIETAL CHALLENGES - Secure, clean and efficient energy

Total cost

€ 5 000 002,50

EU contribution

€ 5 000 000,00

Coordinated by

ENERGISTYRELSEN
Denmark

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - CAV_EPBD (Concerted Action EPBD V)

Reporting period: 2020-05-01 to 2022-10-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

The Concerted Action EPBD (CA EPBD) supports the full implementation of the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD), the convergence towards common solutions and the documentation of the impact of its overall implementation. The CAV_EPBD is listed in the Horizon 2020 Work Programme "Secure, Clean and Efficient Energy" for the period 2018-2020 under "Other Actions" as a Grant to identified beneficiaries.

The overall objective of the Concerted Action EPBD is to foster exchange of information and experience among EU Member States and other participating countries (currently 27 EU MS, plus the UK and Norway) with regards to the implementation of the specific European Union legislation and policy on the energy performance of buildings, and in particular with regards to the transposition and implementation of Directive 2018/844/EU. The specific objectives of the Concerted Action EPBD are to:
1. Enhance and structure the sharing of information and experience from national implementation of the EPBD and promote good practice in activities required from participating countries for its implementation.
2. Create favourable conditions for faster convergence of national procedures on EPBD-related matters.
3. Develop a direct link with the other two buildings-related Concerted Actions where National Energy Efficiency Action Plans are being discussed to include initiatives towards building energy efficiency: the CA-RES, focusing on transposition and implementation of the Renewable Energy Directive; and the CA-EED, focusing on transposition and implementation of the Energy Efficiency Directive.
4. Supplement the work of the Article 26 Committee and possible ad-hoc groups on CEN (European Committee for Standardisation) standards and certification exercises.
5. Establish a dialogue with the European Committee for Standardisation (CEN) in their work and implementation of the 2nd generation standards to support the implementation of the EPBD.
6. Support EU Member States, the UK and Norway in using National Energy Efficiency Action Plans to report progress on the EPBD implementation.

As with previous grant agreements of the Concerted Action, CAV_EPBD strives to result in a more harmonised approach, improved implementation and actual application of the EPBD in all the countries involved, as well as helping to disseminate best practices between the countries.

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 Concerted Action EPBD works through a set of plenary meetings where national experts meet and exchange experiences, both good and bad. They further learn from presentation and discussion of good examples, projects results and expert views. A series of six plenary meetings are planned in CAV_EPBD, bringing at least 3 experts from each country together for discussions in parallel sessions and plenary meetings. During the period 01.05 2018 – 31.12 2020, the following plenary meetings have taken place:
• 19-21 November 2018, London
• 5-6 June 2019, Riga
• 11-12 March 2020 Sofia - cancelled due to the spread of COVID 19
Additionally, an in-depth workshop was held in Barcelona on 30-31 January 2020.

The CAV_EPBD further produces and disseminates country status reports on EPBD implementation status and reports on progress in the 9 core teams, as well as multiple other publications. The CAV_EPBD has collected the status of EPBD implementation developments in 2020, including Key Implementation Decisions (KIDs), at the individual country/region level of EU MS countries plus the UK and Norway, and will make them publicly available in the form of a dynamic public database.

A cornerstone in the internal communication and exchange between CA EPBD participants is the online Project Centre where meeting preparatory reports, session reports, materials, results of questionnaires, etc. are archived for exclusive access by involved experts. The confidentiality is needed both for meetings and for sharing of knowledge, because this is the only way experts feel confident to also share critical failures and challenges, from where the largest gains can be extracted.

In addition, internal Webzines inform participants about meeting planning and important developments, while News Flashes inform CAV_EPBD participants on short notice about meeting outcomes or other important matters.

The website is the main means of dissemination of results towards external stakeholders and includes any public output, as well as relevant announcements and other features. The website was revamped with a fresh new identity and structure early on in CAV_EPBD and is since being regularly updated. A main part of the website is the link to the database of CA EPBD results.

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)

It is beyond doubt that the share of good and bad experiences as well as discussions on challenges and solutions have supported the good and fast implementation of the EPBD and all revisions into the national contexts.

At each plenary meeting (29 since the first CA EPBD), a set of 18-21 sessions have been held, and in each session, a specific issue of policy implementation has been discussed and always with a good evaluation for relevance and content. In many cases, a significant part of the experts has indicated that sessions stimulated new ideas or gave new thoughts for their work on EPBD implementation. It is also easy to see that solutions have convergence towards the same solutions or only a few different directions based on the common evaluation of successful implementation.

Although it cannot be specifically documented, it must be assumed that the fruitful discussions have been a key reason for many successful implementation actions. In CAV_EPBD alone, around 100 sessions have been held at plenary meetings and in-depth workshops. Between 25 and up to nearly 100 experts have participated in each individual session; this often has included discussions in groups, input from research studies, lessons learned from one or more countries and a lot of reviews including many questionnaires and polling. The national progress reports and the thematic reports with the key results of discussions alone in the past compiled up to more than 800 pages of important know-how. The envisaged dynamic database is expected to further increase the experience of accessing new updates of this very important source of information.

As a strong network of around 300 leading experts in energy performance of buildings, the CA EPBD also facilitates direct collaboration and share of information outside the plenary and other meetings.

The accumulated experience of the CA EPBD network accounts for hundreds of years of high-level national experience with implementation of energy performance of buildings. If a mistake can be done, there is a good chance that someone in this group has tried it; if a solution must be found to such a challenge, it is also likely that someone in this network has found it. The CA EPBD works at bringing this information to the right people at the right moment, and strives to find common solutions to commonly recognised challenges.