Click the link below to read about news in energy auditing. What energy audit is about, what requirements are to be met in terms of energy auditing and what your duties are.

Energy audit is the first step, for example, for the introduction of efficient energy management, which monitors energy consumptions and controls and regulates energies. Efficient energy management is currently a trend talking about energy savings and striving to enhance energy performance.

https://www.tzb-info.cz/energeticka-narocnost-budov/22095-dlouho-ocekavane-nove-vyhlasky-o-energetickem-auditu-a-o-energetickem-posudku-jsou-v-platnosti

The full wording from the link is attached:

On 31. 3. 2021, two important decrees were published in the Collection of Laws of the Czech Republic: Decree n. 140/2021 Coll., on energy audit, and Decree n. 141/2021 Coll., on energy assessment, implementing obligations set forth in sec. 9 and sec. 9a of Act n. 406/2000 Coll., on efficient energy management, as amended by act n. 3/2020 Coll. These two decrees finalized the process of principal changes in primary tools to identify opportunities to improve the efficiency of energy use, i.e. energy audits and energy assessments.  Both new decrees come into force on 1^st April 2021.

Decree n. 140/2021 Coll., on energy audit

The new decree principally changes the contents and process of energy audits.

A principal change is, for instance, the requirement that an energy audit (EA) plan is prepared in cooperation with the ordering party, and such plan shall, among other things, determine the level of detail of the energy audit.

New decrees available from TZB-info
Vyhláška č. 140/2021 Sb. o energetickém auditu (Decree on energy audit)
Vyhláška č. 141/2021 Sb. o energetickém posudku a o údajích vedených v Systému monitoringu spotřeby energie (Decree on energy assessment and data in the energy consumption monitoring system).

The following obligations are imposed:

• Write an EA plan pursuant to Annex 2 and co-sign the plan with the ordering party,
• Write a list of required supporting documents and list of supporting documents provided,
• Include the EA plan (signed), including amendments, if any, and the list of required and provided supporting documents in the Annex part of the EA report.
• The final overview of requested and actually provided documents is to be disclosed by the energy specialist in the Annex part of the EA report.

In addition to ordering party identification data and a description of the scope of EA, the EA plan shall determine the level of detail at which the EA shall be performed (in compliance with the law, naturally) and it shall also specify assessment criteria to classify opportunities for energy performance enhancement, describe the method of cooperation to be applied in performing EA and provide the list of supporting documents requested for the processing of EA.

Another substantial change is the duty to subject the entire energy management of the ordering party and geographically, organizationally or process-wise designated units of energy management to such energy assessment. All units must be situated within the territory of the Czech Republic and only means of transport registered within the territory of the Czech Republic are to be included in the energy assessment. The summary overview of energy consumptions by units structured into buildings, production processes and transport makes up the energy audit of the entire energy management system.

The summary overview of energy utilization and consumptions by units is structured by existing measuring points, if the energy-audit-plan-determined level of detail so requires, by energy consumption history over the last 2 years, energy inputs for individual units and energy utilization analysis.

The method used to assess proposed opportunities to enhance energy utilization efficiency changes too, whereas proposed opportunities shall be assessed autonomously, from the economic and environmental perspective, and, newly, also based on multi-criteria evaluation. 

Opportunities (based on the requirements of standard ČSN ISO 50002):

• Must promise economic benefits.
• Set of proposed opportunities must meet the requirement that total energy savings or CO₂ savings as compared to the entire energy consumption set or unit must amount to at least 10 % (taking synergetic effects into account). 
• If it is not possible to objectively achieve this minimum limit, energy specialist must provide a technical or economic justification for the lower savings!

It is the energy specialist’s duty to identify opportunities and provide factual description, quantify yearly energy savings, estimate the cost of implementing the relevant measures and determine risks and uncertainties, carry out economic evaluation and quantify absolute NPV over the entire assessment period and chose the assessment period for each opportunity. Ideally, such assessment period or proposed opportunity should match the service life of a substitution technology.  Where an opportunity involves technologies with different service lives, it is necessary to set the assessment period and take into account the renewal of such shorter service life technology and its salvage value.

The actual assessment of individual opportunities is provided in the decree in the following extent:

1. Change in energy performance expressed as annual energy savings and change over the course of time, optimally with monthly steps,
2. Energy efficiency indicator after the opportunity is implemented,
3. Description of method how benefits are determined, including potential synergies with other opportunities,
4. Economic evaluation pursuant to Annex n. 7 of the decree,
5. Environmental evaluation pursuant to Annex n. 8 of the decree and
6. Multi-criteria evaluation pursuant to Annex n. 9 of the decree:
   1. Change in energy performance expressed as annual energy savings and change over the course of time, optimally with monthly steps,
   2. Energy efficiency indicator after the opportunity is implemented,
   3. Description of method how benefits are determined, including potential synergies with other opportunities,
   4. Economic evaluation pursuant to Annex n. 7 of the decree and
   5. Environmental evaluation pursuant to Annex n. 8 of the decree.

The decree also defines the method for determining number of employees, annual turnover and annual balance sheet totals for the purpose of determining whether or not the entity is obligated to undergo an energy audit pursuant to act n. 406/2000, on efficient energy management. This information is important for owners and entrepreneurs as it clearly sets the criteria as to when their business is (or is not) required under the law to undergo an energy audit.

It can be said that the new decree managed to combine the requirements of act n. 406/2000 Coll., and the law-defined harmonized standard ČSN ISO 50002 – Energy Audits. In this context it should be understood that energy audit is now specified as a process ending with an energy audit report pursuant to the new decree n. 140/2021 Coll., on energy audit.

Decree n.141/2021 Coll., on energy assessment

This new decree follows up on the new wording of obligations under section 9a of act n. 406/2000, on efficient energy management, as amended, and also reflects on experience available to date from performing energy assessments. 

The general contents of an energy assessment are: title page, details of energy assessment in terms of subject matter and purpose of the assessment, energy specialist’s recommendation and feasibility conditions for the recommendation, as well as energy assessment file record.

Energy assessment particulars and recommendations of energy specialist are required adequately for each type of energy assessment as set out in sec. 9 a of act n. 406/2000.

Details, in addition to the economic and environmental evaluations, are provided in the annex section.

The decree introduces two new types of energy assessments, namely:

• Determination of the Project’s Internal Rate of Return (IRR)  in the event that the entity is entitled to claiming support under legislation on supported energy sources and the project is funded from provisioning programs of either national or European funding mechanisms or funds generated from the sale of greenhouse gas emission allowances, and
• Assessment of the economic viability of heat utilization from a thermal energy supply system or an energy source, which is not a stationary source, pursuant to act n. 201/2012 Coll., on air protection, as amended.

The new decree sets basic assessment principles for this type of energy assessment. The new decree puts in concrete terms that the assessment shall be based on comparison between the Net Present Value (NPV) of a variant where thermal energy from a thermal energy supply system /Czech: soustava zásobování tepelnou energií/ is used or where thermal energy from a source, which is not a stationary source, is used, and the Net Present Value where thermal energy comes from a stationary source. To put it in simpler terms, comparison between an “emission-free” variant and an “emission” variant. The determining economic indicator is the resulting Net Present Value (NPV). Always, as minimum, one variant using the thermal energy supply system or a non-stationary source and one stationary source variant are used. If, currently, heat supplies come from a supply system, such supply must be included into the comparison as one of the variants. A variant involving any form of a stationary source (whether or not minor from the perspective of heat supplies), for instance a heat pump and a sophisticated natural gas boiler combined, must be considered a stationary source variant.

Nevertheless, the wording of Annex 6 sets more specifically that the “emission-free” variant is only assessed on condition that such variant is technically viable. This condition should preclude situations (administrative and financial burden on the ordering party) that such energy assessment is prepared even if it does not make sense due to technical conditions.

Only the variant with the highest NPV can be selected as recommended. A variant using a stationary source may only be selected as recommended if none of the technically viable variants using thermal energy from a supply system or a non-stationary source provides a higher NPV. Particular boundary conditions and requirements for computation inputs to compute economic indicators are set out more specifically in Annex 6.

In addition to these new types of energy assessment, Annex 2 provides details to assess the costs and benefits in carrying out energy assessment for the purposes of

1. Assessing the costs and benefits of High-Efficiency Combined Heat and Power (HE CHP) in case a new power generation plant is built or an existing power plant  is substantially rebuilt,  provided  the heat input of such power plant is more than 20 MW, except power generation plants with operation time longer than 1500 hours per year and nuclear power plants,
2. Assessing the costs and benefits of heat recovery to satisfy economically justified demand for heat, including combined power and heat and the connection of a facility, as minimum, to a thermal energy supply system, located at a distance of not more than 1000 m from the heat energy source, in case a new industrial property is built or an existing industrial property is substantially rebuilt, provided the heat input of such industrial property is more than 20 MW, and such industrial property generates waste heat of usable temperature, 
3. Assessing the costs and benefits of extraction of waste heat from, as minimum, industrial properties located not more than 500 m from a heat distribution facility, in case a new thermal energy supply system is built or an existing thermal energy supply system is reconstructed, provided the heat input of such supply system is more than 20 MW.

Annex n. 5 contains procedure for assessing the viability of a project for the purposes of an energy assessment, for projects enhancing energy performance of buildings or improving energy use efficiency or reducing emissions from polluting incineration sources  or utilizing renewable or secondary sources or combined power and heat generation sources, funded under provisioning schemes by national or European funds or funds generated from the sale of greenhouse gas emission allowances, unless the funding provider sets otherwise with regards to individual provisioning scheme requirements.

It should be noted here that representatives of the Ministry of the Environment took an active part in creating this type of energy assessment, which gave rise to a good premise that such energy assessment will be relevant in the future for such programs as the OPŽP (Operational Program “Environment), where, so far, has been no consistence in respect to act n. 406/2000 Coll., on efficient energy management, as amended.

Detailed information on new decrees n. 140/2021 Coll., on energy audit, and n. 141/2021 Coll., on energy assessment, including practical applications, are the subject of educational events (webinars and workshops) organized by the Asociace energetických auditorů-energetických specialistů, z.s. (Association of Energy Auditors / Specialists) as part of their ongoing educational programs for energy specialists (see www.aea.cz).

Ing. Miroslav Mareš

President, Managing Board
Associace energetických auditorů-energetických specialistů, z.s.