Key Benefits:
Publics concerned: energy suppliers (electricity, gas, heat, cold, domestic fuel, LPG and motor vehicle fuels), territorial authorities or territorial community groups and their public institutions, National Habitat Agency, social donors, mixed economy companies engaged in the construction or management of social housing.
Purpose: how to obtain energy saving certificates.
Effective January 1, 2011.
Notice: The energy saving certificate system is based on an obligation to achieve energy savings imposed on energy suppliers whose annual sales are above a threshold. These obligations include a financial penalty for energy suppliers that do not meet them within the time limit. Energy suppliers can fulfill their obligations by holding energy saving certificates, obtained under certain conditions as a result of energy saving actions or by purchasing from other actors that have carried out these actions. The decree specifies the modalities for the instruction and issuance of energy saving certificates for the second three-year period of energy saving obligations (1 January 2011 - 31 December 2013).
References: the decree repeals from 1 January 2011 on Decree No. 2006-603 of 23 May 2006 which specified the modalities for obtaining energy saving certificates for the first three-year period of energy saving obligations (1 July 2006 - 30 June 2009).
The Prime Minister,
On the report of the Minister of Ecology, Sustainable Development, Transport and Housing and the Minister of Economy, Finance and Industry,
Considering the construction and housing code, including its article L. 411-2;
Vu la Act No. 2000-321 of 12 April 2000 amended on the rights of citizens in their relations with the administration, including Article 21;
Vu la Act No. 2005-781 of 13 July 2005 amended programme setting the guidelines for energy policy, including articles 14, 15 and 17;
Vu la Act No. 2009-967 of 3 August 2009 amended programming relating to the implementation of the Grenelle de l'environnement, including its article 19;
Vu le Decree No. 2010-1663 of 29 December 2010 related to energy saving obligations within the framework of energy saving certificates;
Considering the opinion of the Higher Energy Council of 31 August 2010;
Considering the advice of the Local Finance Committee (the Standards Assessment Advisory Board) of 7 October 2010;
The State Council (section of public works) heard,
Decrete:
May result in the issuance of energy saving certificates provided for in theArticle 15 of the Act of 13 July 2005 referred to above :
any action of a natural or legal person referred to in thearticle 3 of Decree No. 2010-1663 of 29 December 2010 referred to above or the National Habitat Agency to achieve energy savings and to meet the conditions set by this Order;
- any action, having the same object and meeting the same conditions, carried out by an organization referred to in Article L. 411-2 of the Construction and Housing Code or a mixed economy corporation engaged in the construction or management of social housing;
― any action, having the same object and meeting the same conditions, carried out by a territorial community or a grouping of local authorities or one of their public institutions, as long as it deals with its own heritage or is carried out within its competence.
The actions of the persons mentioned in Article 1 who may give rise to the issuance of certificates of energy savings are:
― the realization of standardized operations defined by decree of the Minister responsible for energy and with a flat value of energy savings determined in relation to the energy performance reference situation defined in the second paragraph of Article 3;
― the realization of specific operations, when the action does not enter the field of a standardized operation;
― contribution to the programs mentioned second paragraph of Article 15 of the Act of 13 July 2005 referred to above.
An application for energy saving certificates can only be applied to completed shares less than one year before the date of this application.
The value of energy saving certificates assigned to an operation is the sum of annual energy savings realized during the lifetime of the product or the duration of the service contract. This amount is expressed in kilowatt hours of final energy. Energy savings achieved in the years following the first year of life of the product or performance of the service contract are calculated by means of degressive weights determined by the Minister responsible for energy.
The energy performance benchmark used to calculate energy saving certificates is the technical and economic state of the product or service market at the most recent date for which data are available. In the case of work to improve the thermal performance of the envelope of an existing building or its fixed thermal systems, the energy performance reference situation takes into account the overall state of the same nature real estate park and the level of performance of the materials or equipment implemented on the most recent date for which data are available.
The transactions that correspond only to compliance with the regulations in effect as of January 1, 2011 do not result in the issuance of energy saving certificates. The standardized operations defined by regulation prior to this date continue to result in the issuance of energy savings certificates under the conditions defined by decree taken by the Minister responsible for energy.
When a person engages in actions in a specific operation to achieve energy savings, they can only be taken into account for the issuance of energy savings certificates if the savings realized offset the cost of the investment after more than three years.
The value of energy saving certificates can be weighted, if any, depending on the nature of the beneficiaries of energy savings, the nature of energy saving actions and the energy situation of the geographic area where economies are realized, under conditions agreed by the Minister responsible for energy.
Actions to be taken third paragraph of Article 15 of the Act of 13 July 2005 referred to above may result in the issuance of energy saving certificates if:
― they are made for the production of heat or cold consumed in a residential or agricultural or tertiary activities mentioned in thearticle 2 of Decree No. 2010-1663 of 29 December 2010 referred to above ; and
― they did not benefit from investment assistance from the Environment and Energy Management Agency, particularly as part of the support fund for the development of the production and distribution of heat of renewable origin as provided for in the Fund IV of Article 19 of the Act of 3 August 2009 referred to above.
The equipment taken into account are new equipment ensuring the supply of heat or cold from renewable energy for heating, cooling or hot water in existing buildings.
The amount of certificates awarded for each operation is equal to the production of heat or net cold obtained after deduction of the energy consumption of the equipment.
A person referred to in section 1 may request the approval of an energy saving action plan. The application for approval is addressed to the prefect of the department of the applicant's seat or, if the applicant does not have a head office in the national territory, to the prefect of Paris.
The approval notebook and the list of documents to be attached to the application are decided by the Minister responsible for Energy. The application for approval specifies, in particular, the modalities for the implementation of the energy saving action plan concerned by detailing the evidence that the person may apply for energy saving certificates in accordance with Article 1st, the actions taken to encourage end-users to reduce their energy consumption, the information collection circuit relating to the effective implementation of the energy saving operations, the measures taken to avoid these two-way operations
The prefect acknowledges receipt of the request. It shall decide on the application for approval within six months from the date of receipt of a complete record. When the application relates to an energy savings plan that has already been approved and has been subject to change, this deadline is three months. In the absence of a response within these deadlines, applications are deemed to be rejected.
The approval is valid for a maximum of three years. It may be suspended or withdrawn by a reasoned decision of the prefect, after the person concerned has been able to present his or her observations.
The application for energy saving certificates is addressed to the prefect of the applicant's headquarters department or, if the applicant does not have a head office in the national territory, to the Paris Prefect.
The application is accompanied by a file containing the documents whose list is stopped by the Minister for Energy.
The applicant for energy saving certificates must in support of his application justify his active and incentive role in carrying out the operation. It is considered an active and incitative role to be any direct contribution, whether by nature, made by the applicant or through a person who is contractually bound to it, to the person benefiting from the energy saving operation and allowing the execution of the energy saving operation. This contribution must have occurred prior to the initiation of the operation.
The prefect acknowledges receipt of the request. From the date of receipt of a complete file, the prefect delivers the certificates within a time limit of:
- one month for requests for actions relating to standardized operations under a plan of actions approved in accordance with the provisions of Article 5 of this Order;
- three months for requests for actions relating to standardized transactions not covered by a plan of actions approved in accordance with the provisions of Article 5 of this Order;
- six months for requests for specific operations.
In the absence of a response within these deadlines, applications are deemed to be rejected.
The minimum volume of energy savings that may be subject to a demand for energy saving certificates is fixed by order of the Minister responsible for energy.
The persons referred to in section 1 may reach this threshold by grouping, by designating one of them or a third person to request, on their behalf, the certificates of energy savings, provided that each member of the group presents one or more shares of a volume below the above-mentioned threshold and that the sum of the shares of the members allows to reach that threshold.
By derogation, any person referred to in section 1 is authorized to file, once a calendar year, an application for energy saving certificates whose volume is below the above threshold.
The list of information, training and innovation programs in support of the mastery of eligible energy demand that may be subject to the issuance of energy saving certificates is set by order of the Minister responsible for energy.
For the period covered byarticle 1 of Decree No. 2010-1663 of 29 December 2010 referred to above, the volume of energy saving certificates issued under these programs cannot exceed 25 billion kilowatthours of updated cumulative final energy.
The energy saving certificates issued are valid until they have been completed since their delivery date three periods of realization of the national energy saving objective.
The first holder of a Energy Savings Certificate is available to officials and agents mentioned in II of Article 17 of the above-mentioned Act of 13 July 2005 all commercial, technical, financial and accounting documents relating to the conduct of each action, during the delivery period and the following.
Technical data on energy saving actions may be requested for the purpose of evaluating the device.
This Decree comes into force on 1 January 2011. Decree No. 2006-603 of 23 May 2006 referred to above is repealed from that date.
The Minister of Ecology, Sustainable Development, Transport and Housing, the Minister of Economy, Finance and Industry, and the Minister to the Minister of Economy, Finance and Industry, responsible for the industry, energy and the digital economy, are responsible for the execution of this Order, which will be published in the Official Journal of the French Republic.
Done on 29 December 2010.
François Fillon
By the Prime Minister:
The Minister of Ecology,
Sustainable Development,
Transport and housing,
Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet
Minister of Economy,
finance and industry,
Christine Lagarde
Minister to the Minister of Economy,
finance and industry,
responsible for the industry,
energy and the digital economy,
Eric Besson