Taking measures to save energy

Does the annual energy consumption of a location of your company or organisation exceed 50,000 kWh of electricity or 25,000 m3 of gas or the equivalent in another fuel (in Dutch)? You must meet the energy efficiency obligation. This means you must take energy-saving measures. You also need to report what measures you have taken to save energy. This is stated in the environmental management Activities Decree (Activiteitenbesluit milieubeheer).

Energy saving measures

Does the energy efficiency obligation apply to your company or organisation? Then you must:

• implement all measures with a payback period of 5 years or less that save energy or reduce CO2 emission, or
• implement applicable measures listed in the Recognised energy-saving measures list (Erkende Maatregelenlijst energiebesparing, EML, in Dutch).

There are specific lists for buildings, facilities, and processes.

Examples of recognised measures are:

• replace fluorescent lamps for LED lamps
• insulate the roof of your commercial building
• apply individual control of temperature per room

Obligation to report energy-saving measures

If you must meet the energy efficiency obligation, you have to report on this every 4 years. You can use the step-by-step plan reporting obligation energy effciciency (Stappenplan Rapportage Energiebesparing, in Dutch) to help you determine which reporting obligation you must meet:

• the energy efficiency notification obligation
• the investogation obligation for energy saving for business locations that use 10 million kWh of electricity or 170.00 m3 of natural gas or more a year
• the EED audit obligation (a European obligation for large companies)

You may have to meet more obligations. This is to do with, among others, the government organisation that sets the environmental rules for you.

You can report your energy-saving measures via the Netherlands Enterprise Agency’s ePortal (eLoket). For this you need eHerkenning level 2+ or higher with authorisation for RVO (Netherlands Enterprise Agency) services level eH2+. Do you want to report? Go to the right portal directly to:

• report on the energy efficiency obligation (in Dutch)
• report on the research obligation for ernegy saving (in Dutch)
• report on the EED audit obligation (in Dutch)