The review of the Primary Energy Factor (PEF) has started recently, with the Commission having held its first stakeholders’ workshop on this issue (read more about the PEF), and where EuropeOn has been active to voice its concerns about this critical issue for electrification and for the phase out of fossil fuels.
Already in early June, we shared our detailed position paper with the relevant Commission officials on how various parameters of the methodology used to calculate the PEF for electricity should evolve. This was sent in before the aforementioned stakeholders’ meeting, where EuropeOn was present and was able to engage directly, to a certain extent, with Commission officials and the consultants working with them on this review.
The PEF is an energy efficiency measure aiming to account for primary energy consumption where final energy is used. But due to a questionable methodology, it has ended up being a strong incentive for gas consumption in buildings. And with its ongoing review, coming at this critical time for EU energy policy, EuropeOn is concerned that the Commission is stuck in a silo approach, looking only at reducing energy demand, even if this shifts energy consumption from electricity to fossil fuels.
Consequently, EuropeOn has written to the Director General of the Commission’s Energy Directorate, along with 12 other leading organisations, to alert her about the need to thoroughly revise the methodology of the PEF to enable this tool to contribute to, rather than slow down, the objectives set out in the Green Deal, the REPower EU plan and now “Save Gas for a Safe Winter” initiative.
