COMMISSION STAFF WORKING DOCUMENT EXECUTIVE SUMMARY OF THE EVALUATION of the EU Framework for Metering and Billing of Energy Consumption Accompanying the document Proposal for a Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council amending Directive 2012/27/EU on Energy Efficiency
Date: 2016-11-30
Institutions: Directorate-General for Energy, European Commission
Subjects: consumer information, electricity supply, energy consumption, energy distribution, energy efficiency, energy saving, energy supply, gas supply, measuring equipment, price of energy

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   EUROPEAN COMMISSION  Brussels, 30.11.2016  SWD(2016) 401 final   COMMISSION STAFF WORKING DOCUMENT EXECUTIVE SUMMARY OF THE EVALUATION of the  EU Framework for Metering and Billing of Energy Consumption  Accompanying the document  Proposal for a Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council  amending Directive 2012/27/EU on Energy Efficiency  {COM(2016) 761 final} {SWD(2016) 399 final}  
 
 
Metering and billing is regulated by provisions under the Internal Energy Market Directives 
(IEM)  for  electricity  and  gas  and  the  Energy  Efficiency  Directives  (EED).  The  legislators' 
objectives of these provisions were in short:  

1.  To  enable  effective  consumer  choice  and  boost  competition 

through 
information  on  prices,  energy 

transparent,  comparable  and 
consumption etc. 

reliable 

2.  To enable/incentivise energy savings through sufficiently frequent feedback to 

consumers about (the cost of) their energy consumption 

This  evaluation  does  not  purport  to  cover  all  aspects  of  relevance  to  the  objectives.  Further 
evaluation work will be reported as part of the Market Design Initiative. 

In terms of effectiveness, this evaluation suggests that the IEM and EED together are likely to 
have made a contribution towards both objectives, although this is impossible to quantify. 

The  deadline  for  transposing  the  EED  is  recent  (mid-2014)  and  some  of  its  key  obligations 
have  later  deadlines  for  actual  application.  Until  the  national  transposition  measures  have 
been verified to be in conformity with the Directive and applied on the ground, it is too early 
to  draw  many  firm  conclusions  as  regards  the  current  framework.  It  is  nevertheless  already 
now possible to identify certain gaps, problems and potential improvements.  

With  regard  to  comparability  and  clarity  of  billing  information,  the  low  satisfaction  of 
electricity  and  gas  customers  compared  to  other  markets  and  the  high  proportion  of 
complaints related to billing suggest there is room for improvement and further action either 
at national or EU level. 

With respect to energy savings, there was an intention in the EED to clarify the pre-existing 
requirements.  Yet,  the  current  framework  remains  complex  and  open  to  interpretation  with 
regard to the nature and scope of certain key obligations. 

In terms of efficiency, there is good reason to assume that the provisions have been efficient 
in  terms  of  proportionality  between  impacts  and  means  used,  due  to  the  built-in  cost-
effectiveness conditions. In some cases, these could be replaced with simpler terms reflecting 
developments in the availability of remotely readable equipment. 

The frequency of billing information is regulated by the IEM in a qualitative way, and by a 
quantified provision in the EED in so far as non-smart meters are concerned. This results in an 
unjustified  difference  in  the  minimum  frequency  with  which  customers  equipped  with 
smart/remotely  read  equipment  are  entitled  to  receive  information  on  their  consumption  of 
electricity/gas as compared to heat. 

On billing information, Annex VII of the EED could be improved to address internal overlaps 
or ambiguities as regards the nature and scope of its applicability. 

Further coherence questions can be raised as regards disclosure of energy sources. The current 
system  is  not  technology-neutral.  Also,  whereas  EU  legislation  sets  out  tools  to  facilitate 
electricity-related  disclosure  for  both  renewables  and  high-efficiency  cogeneration,  it  only 
stimulates  a  demand  for  the  former.  Even  for  renewables,  the  disclosure  obligation  is  not 
systematically met using guarantees of origin, despite these being available for this purpose. 

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