An In-Depth Analysis of the Electricity End-Use Consumption and Energy Efficiency Trends in the Tertiary Sector of the European Union

In 2005 Joint Research Centre of the European Commission (EC-JRC) started an in-depth survey of the electricity end-use consumption and energy efficiency trends in order to assess the energy efficiency potential in the building sector in the European Union Member States (EU-27).1 The survey is updated every two years, the last one being carried out in 2009. Data for end-use electricity consumption for the tertiary sector are very scarce and are not routinely collected by any national or European statistical office. The data are assembled from a variety of sources: published reports and papers, interviews with experts and researchers, including electricity distribution companies' data. At the same time, data on efficiency trends of the most common end-use equipment are collected from multiple sources, including equipment manufacturers. The survey aims to link the efficiency improvements to the trends in consumption, and to have an estimate of the impact of efficiency policies on energy consumption. In particular, accounting for electricity consumption is a very important step for the development of energy policies, but so far electricity consumption analysis has been neglected or underestimated in policy development and related research. The paper presents the main results and conclusion of the 2009 survey.