This week, the Council of Ministers, at the request of the Ministry for Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge (MITECO), has approved a Royal Decree that regulates the system of Energy Saving Certificates (CAE), also known as white certificates, a new tool that has been successfully implemented in other European countries, such as France and Italy, where they have been used for years with remarkable results, to achieve the energy saving targets committed to the EU in a flexible and more efficient way.
It will create a new market (initially with a volume of around 400 MM €, but growing) that will make it easier for energy marketers to meet their savings obligations, benefit consumers and boost employment, productivity and business competitiveness. This also complies with another of the measures envisaged in the Plan Más Seguridad Energética (Plan +SE).
What is a Certificate of Energy Savings or CAE?
The rationale behind the CAE is simple: the country obliges certain companies in the energy sector (generally energy suppliers and distributors) to demonstrate that they have been able to implement energy savings. Each predetermined volume of savings entitles them to an Energy Saving Certificate or ESC.
An Energy Savings Certificate (ESC) is an electronic document with an economic value that formalizes the amount of energy saved (kWh/year) from a given investment.
Supply and Demand
In this way, with the implementation of the measures, the final customers will achieve energy and, therefore, economic savings that will represent an additional income for their projects. We have clearly differentiated the two parts of the system:
1. Demand: Obligated Subjects – Energy Marketers –
2. Supply: Final customers – Industrial, agricultural, tertiary or service sectors; any community of neighbors.
Delegated Subjects
As a nexus of union are the Delegated Subjects, which are in charge of unifying demand and supply, of generating and supplying the CAE to the market. They may be companies that, by complying with a series of requirements, take on the task of obtaining these certificates, in addition to promoting and developing the actions that generate savings, i.e. energy efficiency projects. Energy Service Companies (ESCOs) are companies specialized in carrying out energy efficiency projects for their clients, so that they achieve demonstrable energy savings, they will undoubtedly be a clear example of Delegated Subjects. These savings will be certified by the competent certification body, called Conformity Assessment Body (CAB), which issues a CAE for each savings measure generated.
For example, an ESCO can carry out an energy efficiency project in an end customer, in an industry, and issue a CAE, in turn, it can sell this CAE to any company that is obliged to comply with the obligations imposed by the Ministry, that is to say, to an Obligated Entity.
How can we help you?
Bettergy, which has participated in the previous consultations for the design of the mechanism, has been working for years with major retailers and large companies, to which it will advise through its data analysis platform EnergySequence in the identification of measures and their subsequent implementation.
Directive 2012/27/EU, on energy efficiency, urges Member States to create a mechanism that allows gas and electricity marketing companies, wholesale petroleum product operators and retail liquefied petroleum gas operators to be assigned an annual energy savings quota at national level, according to their sales, which in the Spanish case has so far only been possible in financial contributions equivalent to the National Energy Efficiency Fund (FNEE).
In order to reinforce the volume of savings required by the Directive and the energy efficiency actions, the Government has today approved a Royal Decree establishing the CAE system, which will allow companies subject to the annual energy savings quota to voluntarily substitute a percentage of their payments to the FNEE for certified energy savings from energy efficiency investments. The CAE is a successful formula in other countries, such as France and Italy, which have managed to multiply their annual savings capacity.
Companies will be able to identify savings measures according to a catalog of actions related to air conditioning, improvement of the envelope, lighting, mobility, industrial processes, etc., the implementation of which will make it possible to obtain the CAE (one CAE is equivalent to 1 kWh saved). A ministerial order will soon approve this Catalog.
If you are an Offer (Industrial, Agricultural, Tertiary or Services Sector)
- Identification and assessment of Measures.
- Sign CAE Agreement
If you are a Demand (Energy Trading Companies)
- Sign CAE Agreement
- Advice
Measures or Files in Development
At present, the following files are under development:
- Industrial Sector:
Piston Pumps
Isobaric Recuperators
Pneumatic Compressors
Variable Speed Drive
Pneumatic Compressor Control
Pneumatic Heat Recovery
Industrial Process Isolation
Heat Pump Industry
Renovation of Air Conditioning Generators
Compressor Replacement Refrigeration Installation
Electric Motors
Replace Refrigerant Refrigeration Plant - Tertiary Sector:
Lighting
Air Conditioning
Ventilation
BMS
Painted Roof
Envelopes - Tertiary Sector (No Tertiary Building)
Refrigeration Chambers
Renovation of Air Conditioning Generators
Refurbishment of Refrigeration Equipment - Transportation Sector
Tires
Refrigerated Transport - Agricultural Sector
Thermal Screen Greenhouses
Milk Cooling - Residential Sector
Enclosures
Windows
Solar Thermal
Household Appliances
Clima Heat Pump
Insulated Roof
Deep Renovation
