Energy and audit assessmnet tool for education centres to make energy related improvements plans

By project ENERSELVES

Published on 13 July 2022

Spain

Extremadura

About this good practice

In February 2019, a new law was launched by the regional government of Extremadura aiming at the improvement of the Energy Efficiency, environmental and thermal conditions in the region’s educational centers. This initiative was put forward due to the high and inefficient energy consumption and the constructive quality deficit of buildings (due to the undemanding regulatory framework).
The law's objective was to standardize the region’s educational buildings energy parameters. This was to be achieved by adopting 3 innovative tools.
• Technical guidelines for the improvement of energy efficiency and the integration of renewable energy for self-consumption within the related buildings.
• Energy Efficiency Audit scheme.
• Energy improvement plans for educational buildings.
However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, there have been delays and readjustments to adapt the former tools to the new requirements established by the Spanish government for the air quality standards inside educational buildings.
As a result of the covid-19 situation, which created uncertainty with regards to the improvements that had to be made (changes to the prior air-quality standards), the regional government assigned AGENEX with the task of creating an online tool allowing to standardize and facilitate the audit procedure by creating a standardized upload tool of audit data.
The objective of this law is to develop standardized improvement plans, improve energy and boost energy self-consumption.

Resources needed

This project was funded by a specific transfer from the regional government.
The total cost of the informatic tool was 6.000 €, and two full-time staff were needed for three months.

Evidence of success

In August 2021, the regional government launched a bidding process for educational buildings energy audits. The bidding process gathered the interest of many relevant auditing companies and experts and was considered a success in terms of participation.

Currently, the regional government is evaluating the bids, having as long-term goal the development of a total of 685 new "improvement plans", covering the whole of Extremadura’s educational building stock.

Potential for learning or transfer

Extremadura had until recently a fairly outdated legal framework for constructive quality standards in educational buildings. In short; most of the constructions have been built without a proper legal framework covering issues such as energy efficiency or renewable energy.
As a result, these constructions cannot achieve the minimum values currently required, thus reducing the possibility of installing a renewable energy model for self-consumption.
Thanks to the introduction of Law 4/2019 and the latter adaptation to the demands of COVID 19, all of Extremadura's educational buildings will have a long-term improvement plan.