This event has passed. You can find the recording of the 2nd day (Part 1 and part 2) as well as the presentation slides below:

• Quantifying Energy Efficiency First: Tim Mandel (Fraunhofer IS), Lukas Kranzl (TU Wien), Eftim Popovski (IREES)

• Getting EE1st implemented 

1. Zsuzsanna Pato (Regulatory Assistance Project)
2. Mariangiola Fabbri (BPIE) – Focus on buildings
3. Benigna Boza-Kiss (Central European University) – Focus on Member States implementation

May 31st (11 am to 6 pm CEST) and June 1st, 2022 (10.45 am to 4.30 pm CEST)

Brussels (Martin’s Brussels EU) and online

With the invasion of Ukraine by Russia and the outbreak of war at the end of February 2022, finding ways to secure energy while cutting our dependence to Russian’s energy is now at the top of the European agenda.

In response to this crisis, the European Commission recently published its REPowerEU Communication for more affordable, secure and sustainable energy, and is expected to publish its REPower Action Plan to set out concrete actions. 

In line with the Energy Efficiency First (EE1st) principle, reducing the energy demand and increasing the EU’s energy efficiency target has now become crucial. Energy Efficiency First means prioritising investments in energy efficiency and demand-side resources whenever these options are more cost-effective than investments in energy supply.

Organised by Enefirst and sEEnergies, this conference illustrated how implementing the Energy Efficiency First principle can help make the most out of energy efficiency and other demand-side resources to achieve a sustainable and resilient energy system in the EU.

The two days combined the latest findings of the sEEnergies and Enefirst H2020 projects, together with experts’ roundtables.

Day 1: Energy Efficiency First, REPowerEU 2030 and 100% renewable energy in 2050 for Europe

Moderator: Iva Ridjan Skov, Associate Professor Aalborg University 

11:00 Welcome – registrations and light lunch

12:00 Session 1

• sEEnergies energy efficiency 2050 results and 100% renewable energy systems for EU27 and the UK, Brian Vad Mathiesen, Professor and David Maya-Drysdale, Assistant Professor, Aalborg University  

• Scarcity as a new normal towards 2050, Antonella Battaglini, CEO Renewables Grid Initiative 

• Q&A  

13:00 Energy Efficiency Deep Dives  

• EE in Transport systems in sEEnergies: Morten Elle, Associate Professor, Aalborg University and Hamza Abid, Research Assistant, Aalborg University  

• EE in Buildings in sEEnergies: Martin Jakob, Executive partner, TEP Energy 

• EE in Industry in sEEnergies: Katerina Kermeli, Researcher, Utrecht University and Rasmus Magni Johannsen, PhD Fellow Aalborg University 

• Grids for Energy Efficient systems – electricity, district heating and gas grids: Dirk Saelens, Professor, KU Leuven, Bernd Möller, Professor, Europa-Universität Flensburg 

• Tool Box – Visualisation, Exploitable Tools and Data from sEEnergies: Bernd Möller, Professor, Europa-Universität Flensburg 

• Q&A 

15:15 Coffee break

16:00 REPowerEU 2030: EE1st Principle, Energy Security in the light of the Russia-Ukrainian War

• Brian Vad Mathiesen

16:30 REPowerEU – the EU Commission answer to energy security in Europe

• Hans Van Steen, Principal Adviser, EU DG Energy

Round table: Is the EU on track for the harvesting energy efficiency first potentials in REPowerEU?

• Hans Van Steen, Principal Adviser, EU DG Energy 
• Michaela Holl, Senior associate, Agora Energiewende  
• Jeppe Juul, Vice President, Transport & Environment.  
• Wolfgang Eichhammer, Head Competence Centre Energy Policy and Energy Markets at Fraunhofer ISI  
• Eline Blanchard, Senior Policy & Project Officer, EFIEES – European Federation of Intelligent Energy Efficiency Services  
• Brian Vad Mathiesen, Professor, Aalborg University

18:00 Wrap up and conclusions

Day 2: Making Energy Efficiency happen First!

10:15 Welcome and registrations

10:45 Opening: Why EE1st is an essential principle for the Energy Union

• Eleonora Evi (MEP, rapporteur on the EED recast in the ENVI committee, Greens – Italy)

11:00 Quantifying EE1st with a new look at energy system cost to investigate trade-offs between end-use energy efficiency and supply-side options to decarbonize buildings

• Tim Mandel (Fraunhofer ISI), Lukas Kranzl (TU Wien), Eftim Popovski (IREES)

12:15 Experts’ round table: How quantitative assessments can inform the trade-offs between energy efficiency, RES and electrification on the road to carbon neutrality in buildings

• Brian Vad Mathiesen (Aalborg University / sEEnergies project), Barbara Schlomann (Fraunhofer ISI, MICAT), Bianka Shoai-Tehrani (RTE, France), Maria Galavan (SEAI, Ireland), Sebastian Botzler (Technical University Munich)

13:00 Lunch break

14:15 Getting EE1st implemented – ENEFIRST policy proposals to change mindsets from silo thinking to integrated approaches in energy planning and policy design

• Zsuzsanna Pato (Regulatory Assistance Project), Mariangiola Fabbri (BPIE), Benigna Boza-Kiss (Central European University)

15:30 Interview: Recent and upcoming developments in the EU framework for EE1st

• Veronika Jirickova (DG ENER)

16:00 Open discussion: What’s next to develop the implementation of EE1st? 

16:30 Wrap up and conclusions

Disclaimer: sEEnergies and ENEFIRST have received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation programme under Grant Agreement No 846463 and 839509.