White certificates in industry: the Italian experience

The Italian white certificates scheme (WhC) has been in place for nine years and a lot of experience has been gathered. More than this, it has become an effective mechanism, mostly based on measured energy savings, to promote and implement energy efficiency in industry. The scheme is based on an energy efficiency obligation, imposed on electricity and gas distributors, and on a tradable market for certificates, thus acting as an incentive for medium and large end-users and energy service companies (the voluntary parties). The WhC targets shall reach 7.6 Mtoe/year in 2016 and are expected to cover around 60% of the national target set by the EU Energy Efficiency directive (2012/27/EU). After the first phase dominated by deemed saving projects - in particular CFL lamps and other civil sector applications "progetti a consuntivo" (a.k.a. monitoring plans) in the industrial sector have started to rise under the effect of the "tau" coefficient, the multiplier introduced in 2011 that adds to the yearly additional savings the discounted future savings for technologies with a lifespan of more than 5 years (WhCs are usually released for a lifetime of 5 years). The result has been dramatic: in 2013 around 95% of the certificates due to new projects were related to energy efficiency in the industrial sector. The paper shows in detail this transformation and how a WhC scheme has been able to become effective for industrial energy efficiency projects. The paper is based on extensive research carried on by the Italian Federation for the Rational Use of Energy (FIRE) on monitoring plans, under a contract with ENEA, the Italian national energy agency. The Italian white certificates scheme: how it works