Ricardo-AEA in collaboration with a number of European partners is supporting the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Energy in undertaking the review and update of the efficiency reference values laid down in Commission Implementing Decision 2011/877/EU. Article 14 of The Energy Efficiency Directive (EED) 2012/27/EU empowers the European Commission to periodically review these reference values which were first established in 2006 and then, following review, were updated in 2011 via Commission Implementing decision 2011/877/EU.  The reference values enable CHP plants (Photo: Vaillant fuel cell system) to be compared with the best available and economically-justifiable technology for separate production of heat and electricity on the market in the year of their construction based on operational data under realistic conditions.  In order to account for technological developments and changes in fuel usage, not only by CHP but by power- and heat- only plant they displace, the Commission seeks to review the reference values every 4 years.  This allows recommendations to be made on whether the reference values and the list of fuels and cogeneration technologies for which reference values currently exist should be updated and how. A workshop is held on February 10, 2015 in Brussels and more information is available on a dedicated website.

Support of operators of cogeneration, power-only and heat-only plant is needed to provide annual real-life operational data for plant commissioned from 2006 to date.  In summary, the data we require from power-only (or CHP) plant operators comprises:

• The date of commissioning and location of plant,
• Fuel and technologies used,
• Grid connection level,
• Data which allows the determination of power-only efficiencies for all years of operation:
  • For power-only plants, this is fuel consumption (MWh) and power output (MWh)
  • For cogeneration plants, this is fuel consumption (MWh) and both power and heat outputs (MWh)