Energy Performance Certificates: Participants in the Race to Zero

Rujeanne Swanepoel, inspection body quality manager at Remote Metering Solutions

Accounting for 40% of global energy consumption and 33% of greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) - according to the World Economic Forum, reducing the carbon emissions associated with buildings is a key part of the decarbonisation challenge.

South Africa is no exception, and the carbon emissions of our local building stock must be reduced if we are to achieve the goal of aligning the country to a 2°C scenario. The importance of this goal is evidenced by the proposed Post-2015 National Energy Efficiency Strategy (NEES) which requires that state-owned buildings reduce specific energy consumption by 50%, and commercial buildings by 37% by 2030.

An insight into the baseline energy efficiency (kWh/m2) of buildings is the starting point to achieving required improvements to building energy efficiency, and Energy Performance Certificates (EPCs) will assist in this understanding.

EPCs are an internationally recognised tool to assess and benchmark the energy efficiency of buildings. In most countries, EPCs play an important role in:

• Providing the ability to map the building stock energy efficiency at a national scale;
  
• To monitor the impact of building policies;
  
• To support the introduction of new minimum energy efficiency requirements within the regulatory process; and
  
• To help enable carbon reporting and target setting in relation to the building sector.

EPCs instigate change by driving measurement and profiling of buildings which can then prompt improvements, resulting in reduced electricity consumption by buildings, improved energy security and reduced national carbon emissions.

Building owners have less than a year to secure EPCs

10 Dec 2021

Supporting government initiatives

The overall objective of EPCs is to create a comprehensive national register with accurate and reliable building data to support government initiatives in the areas of energy-efficiency monitoring, GHG emissions obligations, carbon tax, etc.

Introducing EPCs allows for improved ability to identify and implement energy efficiency interventions in buildings at a national scale. Ultimately, EPCs should unlock a wider energy efficiency value chain as building owners look at implementing more efficient systems and work towards compliance and/or an improvement in a building’s EPC rating.