Latest Assessment of Residential Electricity Consumption and Efficiency Trends in the European Union

Over the period 2004-2007, the final energy consumption in the European Union 27 Member States (EU-27) decreased, while electricity end-use consumption in the EU-27 continued to grow, but at a lower rate than the economic growth. The final electricity consumption in the EU-27 Member States has continued to grow in the past few years, despite numerous energy efficiency policies and programs at EU and national level. However, for the very first time, in 2007 the EU-27 electricity residential consumption decreased by 7.5% as compared with 2006 and this seems to indicate that residential energy efficiency policies and measures start to be effective. Nevertheless, it is too early to draw final conclusions due to the impact of warm winters that influence heating energy consumption. This paper summarizes the result of an in-depth survey on the electricity consumption in the EU-27 residential buildings, the main findings of the first preparatory studies for implementing the Eco-design Directive as well as other related analysis and studies. One of the aims of this paper is to show the present status of electricity consumption for the main appliances and equipments, the energy efficiency progress, and estimates of the electricity-saving potential in the EU-27 residential sector.