Accounting for lack of European harmonisation when creating next generation energy performance certificates

Energy Performance Certificates (EPCs) are indicators of building energy efficiency and carbon emissions across Europe, following the EU Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD). Assumptions behind EPC design differ significantly across Europe, despite emanating from a common starting point. Next Generation EPCs (NGEPC) relate to recently proposed updates to the EPBD, suggesting new functions and features that EPCs could adopt to be more useful for supporting decisions on zero carbon buildings. However, faced with such variation in approaches across Europe, this paper illustrates that a single pathway for upgrading EPCs will be difficult to achieve. Faced with this challenge, the paper presents methods of EPC categorisation to identify differences across European EPC approaches in a systematic way, directly addressing the consequences of a lack of harmonisation on the design of NGEPCs. By accounting for this variation, a framework is proposed for evolving specific EPC approaches to NGEPC status, captured in a way that is replicable to other EPC methods across Europe. Whilst the paper is informed by approaches across a selection of European countries, the situation in the UK is used as a more focussed case-study, with recommendations provided for how this approach may evolve in light of NGEPC progress. Practical application The presented work provides guidance and decision-support for implementing changes to EPC frameworks as they incorporate next-generation EPC recommendations. The work particularly reflects on EPC practice in the UK but in context of many other European countries; in effect, learning from those countries (and the wider EPBD) but also potentially having impact on the implementation challenges in multiple countries.