EMPIRICAL ESTIMATION OF THE LEVEL OF ENERGY EFFICIENCY IN THE EUROPEAN HOUSEHOLD SECTOR: EVIDENCE FROM ITALY, THE NETHER-LANDS AND SWITZERLAND

摘要

Energy efficiency has a fundamental role to play in the transition towards a more competitive, secure and sustainable energy system. EU countries have agreed on a new 2030 framework for climate and energy, including three EU-wide targets and policy objectives for the period between 2020 and 2030. These targets aim to help the EU achieve a more competitive, secure and sustainable energy system and to meet its long-term 2050 greenhouse gas reductions target. Among these three targets, there is the binding commitment to improve energy efficiency by at least 27% for the year 2030 compared to projections of future energy consumption based on the current criteria. Lately, the Commission even increased the energy efficiency target for 2030 to 30% within the new Energy Efficiency Directive. The residential sector in European countries requires around one third of the end-use electricity. Therefore, it is important for policymakers to estimate the scope for electricity savings in households in order to reduce electricity consumption by using appropriate steering mechanisms. Moreover, it is important to know about the determinants that influence the level of efficiency in the use of electricity. A low level of efficiency, as discussed in Filippini & Hunt (2015), may be due to the fact that households do not adopt and use energy efficient appliances or do not use their appliances in an optimal way. For instance, a household might postpone substituting an old and inefficient refrigerator that consumes a lot of electricity or does not use a cooling system or washing machine in the most efficient way. The potential explanations for an inefficient use of appliances on the one hand and for an under-investment in energy-efficient household appliances on the other hand can be attributed to either market failures or behavioural failures (Broberg & Kazukauskas, 2015). Market failures that prevent investments in energy-efficient appliances can take the form of information problems (e.g., lack of information and information asymmetries), misplaced incentives and principal-agent problems such as the landlord-tenant problem. However, even if these market failures could be overcome, several behavioural failures such as bounded rationality, loss aversion, status-quo bias, risk aversion or inattentiveness potentially reduce the level of efficiency in a household’s energy use. In this paper, we provide an answer to the following questions: Which are the factors that influence the electricity demand at the household level What is the level of efficiency in the use of electricity of European households How large are the potentials for electricity savings in the residential sector for a given level of energy services And is the level of efficiency in the use of electricity in these households associated with their level of energy-related financial literacy