Please note that the date you requested in the address for this web page is not an actual date upon which a change occurred to this item of legislation. You are being shown the legislation from , which is the first date before then upon which a change was made.
1. Where Member States decide to fulfil their obligations to achieve the amount of savings required under Article 7(1) by way of an energy efficiency obligation scheme, they shall ensure that obligated parties as referred to in paragraph 2 of this Article operating in each Member State's territory achieve, without prejudice to Article 7(4) and (5), their cumulative end-use energy savings requirement as set out in Article 7(1).
Where applicable, Member States may decide that obligated parties fulfil those savings, in whole or in part, as a contribution to the Energy Efficiency National Fund in accordance with Article 20(6).
2. Member States shall designate, on the basis of objective and non-discriminatory criteria, obligated parties among energy distributors, retail energy sales companies and transport fuel distributors or transport fuel retailers operating in their territory. The amount of energy savings needed to fulfil the obligation shall be achieved by the obligated parties among final customers, designated by the Member State, independently of the calculation made pursuant to Article 7(1) or, if Member States so decide, through certified savings stemming from other parties as described in point (a) of paragraph 6 of this Article.
3. Where retail energy sales companies are designated as obligated parties under paragraph 2, Member States shall ensure that, in fulfilling their obligation, retail energy sales companies do not create any barriers that impede consumers from switching from one supplier to another.
4. Member States shall express the amount of energy savings required of each obligated party in terms of either final or primary energy consumption. The method chosen to express the amount of energy savings required shall also be used to calculate the savings claimed by obligated parties. The conversion factors set out in Annex IV shall apply.
5. Member States shall put in place measurement, control and verification systems under which documented verification is carried out on at least a statistically significant proportion and representative sample of the energy efficiency improvement measures put in place by the obligated parties. The measurement, control and verification shall be carried out independently of the obligated parties.
6. Within the energy efficiency obligation scheme, Member States may do one or both of the following:
(a) permit obligated parties to count towards their obligation certified energy savings achieved by energy service providers or other third parties, including when obligated parties promote measures through other State-approved bodies or through public authorities that may involve formal partnerships and may be in combination with other sources of finance. Where Member States so permit, they shall ensure that the certification of energy savings follows an approval process that is put in place in the Member States, that is clear, transparent, and open to all market participants, and that aims to minimise the costs of certification;
(b) allow obligated parties to count savings obtained in a given year as if they had instead been obtained in any of the four previous or three following years as long as this is not beyond the end of the obligation periods set out in Article 7(1).
Member States shall assess and, if appropriate, take measures to minimise the impact of the direct and indirect costs of energy efficiency obligation schemes on the competitiveness of energy-intensive industries exposed to international competition.
7. Member States shall, on an annual basis, publish the energy savings achieved by each obligated party, or each sub-category of obligated party, and in total under the scheme.]