Enigin Update - EU Energy Efficiency Directive to Cost UK Hospitals £70M Annually?
PROPOSALS for an EU directive designed to encourage countries to reduce their energy consumption has been called "too rigid and top-heavy" by the UK’s NHS Confederation.
They also claim that it could cost the UK’s National Health Service (NHS) organisations millions of pounds at a time when the service is already trying to achieve substantial savings.
The message comes from the Confederation's European Office, ahead of a vote in the European Parliament's Industry, Research and Energy Committee on the proposed Energy Efficiency Directive.
The directive, which aims to reduce Europe's primary energy consumption by 20 percent by 2020, is due to come into force in the next two years and contains a number of ambitious measures, notably placing heavy emphasis on the need for public sector bodies to lead by example in reducing their energy consumption.
The directive imposes a requirement on public bodies to renovate three per cent of the floor space of their total building stock to high energy efficiency levels each year.
The NHS Confederation says the specific requirement of using floor space to help calculate energy reduction targets, rather than looking at buildings as a whole, would limit the ways in which NHS organisations are able to implement energy efficiency measures in their buildings. It may force them to move away from previously planned programmes of work, and develop a piecemeal approach to building renovations, simply to comply with the provisions of this directive.
The NHS Confederation's European Office estimates that this measure could leave the NHS liable for annual costs of more than £70 million in meeting this part of the directive alone. It says that given the NHS' vast, and often Victorian-era estate, the proposal would be especially damaging for acute services, with significant costs incurred to meet high-energy efficient specifications.
Elisabetta Zanon, director of the NHS Confederation's European Office, said: "The NHS is fully committed to improving its energy efficiency and has made great progress in recent years to become more sustainable and eco-friendly. As the NHS owns a vast and complex estate, we appreciate the need to modernise our buildings, and consume energy more efficiently.
"But these EU proposals are too rigid and top-heavy. They will create a real headache for organisations that are already trying to find sizeable savings. We really don't want to find ourselves in a scenario where we have to divert money away from patient care to pay for costly building renovations.
"We are currently working with EU decision-makers to achieve more flexibility in how the rules are implemented.
"We need to make this directive about more than simply meeting arbitrary targets which impose additional costs on public services at a time when finances are already under real strain. It should allow public bodies to use feasible and proportionate measures to achieve overall reductions in their levels of energy consumption. "
The NHS Confederation is calling for a more flexible approach to allow NHS trusts to reduce their energy consumption.
Which ever way the directive goes Enigin have the technology to allow hospitals and other public sector facilities to improve their energy efficiency cost effectively, as the substantial savings on energy use and costs pay for the investment in Enigin plc’s energy saving solutions and programmes.
These solutions, systems and programmes from Enigin are all available locally through Enigin Distributors, providing full installations, support and advice.
Picture of Derriford Hospital, Plymouth by Tony Atkin © Copyright Tony Atkin and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence.
