Voluntary participation of companies in monitoring of energy efficiency networks: Practice in Germany from the past 5 years

Monitoring and evaluating of energy efficiency policies is crucial to understand their impacts. These impacts can be the direct impacts, in particular on energy use but can also cover wider impacts such as changes in corporate culture and decision making. Over the last years, energy efficiency networks have become a successful instrument to integrate energy efficiency into corporate culture and to foster the uptake of energy efficiency measures in companies. An energy efficiency network is a systematic, targeted and unbureaucratic exchange of experience and ideas between usually 8 to 15, but at least five, companies over usually two to three years in order to jointly increase energy efficiency and implement appropriate measures. Building on the leading example of Switzerland where energy efficiency networks were successfully established as part of a voluntary agreement with industry, Germany has become the largest operator of energy efficiency networks worldwide. The German approach is built on a voluntary agreement between the major industrial organisations and the federal government. The monitoring is carried out by an independent institute. As the scheme is completely voluntary (compared to other “voluntary” schemes, which offer counter-values for the participation), monitoring has its specific challenges. For the participating companies, the added value of participation in the monitoring process is often unclear. The motivation to provide detailed data can be rather low. In particular, when it comes to a detailed verification of the implemented measures, significant efforts have to be made to stimulate an active contribution. The Corona crisis with its multiple impact on business has not made the process easier. This paper therefore aims to provide insights into the practical experience with monitoring in the last 5 years in Germany: On the on hand, challenges of the monitoring process are analysed with regard to the specific conditions of a purely voluntary scheme. On the other hand, the impact of the Corona crisis on the operation of the energy efficiency networks are shown on the basis of a survey conducted among participating companies. Furthermore, results of the monitoring process are presented and analysed with regard to the previously mentioned boundary conditions.