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Review

Unleashing Energy Potential: Insights of Energy Audit Practices

by
Veronika Liberova
1,
Inguna Bremane
1,
Dace Lauka
1,
Krista Laktuka
1,*,
Tereza Bezrucko
1,
Karina Zvirbule
1,
Alise Egija Bezrucko
2 and
Dagnija Blumberga
1
1
Institute of Energy Systems and Environment, Riga Technical University, Azenes iela 12/1, LV-1048 Riga, Latvia
2
Department of Political Science, Faculty of European Studies, Riga Stradiņš University, Main Building, Dzirciema iela 16, LV-1007 Riga, Latvia
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Energies 2025, 18(3), 522; https://doi.org/10.3390/en18030522
Submission received: 19 December 2024 / Revised: 17 January 2025 / Accepted: 21 January 2025 / Published: 23 January 2025
(This article belongs to the Section B: Energy and Environment)
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Versions Notes

Abstract

:
This article examines energy audit procedures as a crucial instrument for raising building and business energy efficiency in European Union (EU) Member States. Energy audits, which include technical, economic, and environmental aspects, are essential to reaching the EU’s climate targets, which include increasing energy independence and cutting emissions by 55% by 2030. The study highlights how crucial energy efficiency initiatives are to combating climate change, cutting energy use, and advancing sustainable development. A thorough examination of methods, financing sources, and legislative frameworks reveals differences in how Member States carry out directives such as the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive and the Energy Efficiency Directive. A case study on Latvia is included in the article, highlighting the country’s energy audit regulations, implementation difficulties, and successes. This study applied a bibliographic methodology or review of the scientific and other relevant literature, analyzing sources identified through targeted keyword searches in academic databases and a variety of online sources, including official legal websites, handbooks, reports, plans, and other publicly available digital resources. The integration of energy efficiency principles and country performances are compared using data from the Odyssee and Mure databases. The results highlight how important it is to standardize energy auditing practices, promote information sharing across national borders, and move past obstacles like public resistance and budgetary limitations. Policy recommendations to improve energy efficiency and aid the EU’s transition to climate neutrality by 2050 are included in the research’s conclusion.

1. Introduction

It is clear that the climate crisis is a global problem and requires coordinated actions on different levels, from household to enterprise, until country leaders tackle it [1]. Combined policy strategies can help overcome complex crises that affect sustainable development [2]. In recent years, many national and international organizations have launched special initiatives, for example, Green Deal, to fight against climate change and environmental degradation [2,3,4]. The issue of achieving climate neutrality has been on the agenda of the European Union (EU) for more than the last ten years. In order to achieve the climate goals set for 2030 and to be able to implement the EU’s long-term strategy, which envisages achieving climate neutrality by 2050, it is necessary to significantly reduce carbon emissions in the EU, including in the EU’s energy system [5]. The building sector is one of those sectors where energy audits are conducted and specific goals must be achieved. One of the main directions of the European Green Deal is to prioritize energy efficiency and improve the energy performance of buildings, which will help reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and improve people’s quality of life [3]. Directive (EU) 2024/1275 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 24 April 2024 on the energy performance of buildings and Directive (EU) 2023/1791 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 13 September 2023 on energy efficiency and amending Regulation (EU) 2023/955 (recast) are of a great importance since they set basis for energy efficiency targets [6,7,8]. To achieve climate neutrality Directive (EU) 2023/1791 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 13 September 2023 on energy efficiency and amending Regulation (EU) 2023/955 (recast), obligations are provided for its Member States to reach exact cumulative end-use energy savings annually from 2021 to 2030 and 2040 [4]. However, Directive (EU) 2024/1275 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 24 April 2024 on the energy performance of buildings sets the target of minimum energy performance standards for non-residential buildings and trajectories for progressive renovation of the residential building stock [8].
While Member States need to obtain energy consumption and its potential savings information at the comprehensive level of all its sectors, building owners, commercial operators, and service providers need to evaluate their energy consumption and possible savings. Accordingly, this is one of the energy efficiency and energy audit concept crossing points. “Namely, energy efficiency means the ratio of output of performance, service, goods or energy to input of energy [4]”. However, the purpose of energy audits is obtaining adequate knowledge of the energy consumption of a building, an industrial or commercial operation, an installation, or a private or public service, and, as a result, identifying and quantifying opportunities for cost-effective energy savings, identifying the potential for cost-effective use or production of renewable energy, and reporting the findings [4]. Respectively, energy audits are instruments that provide information and suggestions to company owners, maintenance companies, homeowners, investors, various financial institutions, and other relevant parties about the energy consumption and condition of buildings, possible technical improvements, and, as a result, energy consumption reduction [9]. By using energy more efficiently and thus consuming less, all world country residents, business owners, and others can reduce their energy bills, help protect the environment, reduce climate change, improve quality of life, reduce EU dependence on imported oil and natural gas suppliers, support sustainable growth, and boost the EU and other country economies [10]. To achieve these benefits, energy efficiency must be improved on both the supply side and demand side, from production to end-use [6,8]. To move towards the goals of the Green Deal and comply with the directives, many governments have created and implemented various initiatives, regulations, and plans that provide energy efficiency-promoting measures and policies, with a focus on implementing energy management systems and conducting energy audits, as these are useful tools for increasing energy efficiency [11,12].
The aim of this review paper is to evaluate energy audit practices across EU Member States, identifying challenges and the best practices to enhance energy efficiency and move closer to achieving the EU’s climate neutrality goals. The review starts with an applied methodology description (Section 2) followed by the legislative and policy framework of energy efficiency and energy audits in Section 3. Sequentially, Section 4 provides an energy efficiency performance statistical comparison in EU Member States. Further, Section 5 comprehensively describes the process of energy audits, involved parties, costs, and financing instruments. The closing sections provide a description of an energy audit case study in Latvia (Section 6), concluding that across the EU, there should be a harmonization of the types and methods of energy auditing (Section 7).
In the paper, Latvia is chosen as a case study since Latvia is one of the EU Member States obliged to reach climate neutrality and decarbonization of its building sector by 2050. As these goals cannot be reached without energy efficiency improvement measures, it is of great importance that each EU Member State’s energy efficiency industry has the capacity to move the state to reaching these goals. Currently in Latvia, by January 2025, only 75 experts have active independent expert certificate status [13]. Therefore, it is necessary to bring Latvia’s energy efficiency industry to light to encourage future professionals to enter the industry, as well as to a start discussion among the energy efficiency science experts on sharing experiences regarding the transposition of Directive (EU) 2024/1275 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 24 April 2024 on the energy performance of buildings and Directive (EU) 2023/1791 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 13 September 2023 on energy efficiency and amending Regulation (EU) 2023/955 (recast) [4,8,14].

2. Methodology

Identifying the relevant literature for this study on energy audit practices involved conducting a performance analysis on documents and journal articles published between 2009 and 2024. The bibliometric review was performed on documents published in reliable scientific publication abstract and citation databases SCOPUS and MDPI. These databases include a wide range of disciplines, provide publication metrics, and are open-access, which facilitates their use. The search focused on energy audit practices, energy efficiency measures, and associated legislative frameworks in European Union Member States.
The search was conducted using multiple queries. The selected settings for queries included searching defined keywords within titles, abstracts, and keywords of the documents; some queries also included searches in all fields or in the full text. The keywords used in the queries were enclosed in quotation marks.
The first 6 queries (see Table 1) aim to perform a search for all published documents on the topic of energy audits in the time period of 2009–2024 in the SCOPUS database. Queries 7–9 were used to perform a search for all published journal articles in the MDPI database also for the time period of 2009–2024. Query 10 was used to search for legal acts in EUROPA SEARCH, accessible from the European Commission official website’s search box. For query 10, there was no time limitation.
Logical operators (AND, OR) were used in queries 1–9 to combine terms and ensure thorough results. Logical operators distinguished the use of similar keywords, particularly if a keyword has alternative terms. The logical operator AND was used in all queries in SCOPUS and MDPI, thus allowing us to find documents that refer to both energy auditing and energy efficiency, as well as allowing us to set a time restriction.
Additional gray literature was sourced from government institution websites and enterprises that offer energy audit services (company offers or websites of associations). These documents were searched in English or the Latvian language for legislative acts, and an important aspect was their validity as well as the inclusion of their amendments.
Accordingly, documents and scientific publications that did not meet the earlier mentioned criteria were not considered.
The initial search produced a wide range of the literature, which was manually screened for relevance based on title, keywords, abstract, and content. Sources were selected if they aligned with the keywords and provided insights pertinent to the study objectives. This process resulted in 84 literature sources categorized as follows:
  • A total of 37 academic sources, including electronic books, scientific journals, conference papers and articles.
  • A total of 40 gray studies: legislation, international standards, guidelines, technical and informative reports, and governmental guidance notes fall under this category.
  • The professional use literature category collected 7 sources, such as reports on the energy market, statistical data, and websites of companies offering energy audit services [15].
Some of these references include The Odyssee and Mure databases, supported by the LIFE-CET program of the European Commission, as they were used to assess and compare energy efficiency progress by sector and country, as well as to assess national energy efficiency policy measures [16].
This study addresses a gap in energy audit research, as the existing literature is limited and lacks review articles that summarize common practices and experiences across Member States. This study contributes by consolidating existing knowledge and providing a foundation for future research in energy audit policies and practices under European Union frameworks and goals.

3. Legislative and Policy Framework

Energy efficiency is an important goal of many governments, aimed at reducing CO2 emissions and obtaining a more efficient use of energy resources [17]. Although energy efficiency was not highlighted in several of the agreements and, for example, not included in the Millennium Development Goals, it later appeared in the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals, with proposals such as sustainable cities and communities, access to renewable energy and climate action, and with Sustainable Development Goal 7 calling for “international progress on energy efficiency to be doubled by 2030”, and aiming “to provide universal access to reliable, modern and sustainable energy services by 2030”, increasing the share of renewable energy in global energy balances and improving international cooperation on access to clean energy research and technology, including renewable energy, energy efficiency, and advanced technologies, as well as increasing investment in energy infrastructure and clean energy technologies [18]. Therefore, according to these international agreements, EU countries are required to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, not only by increasing the production and use of renewable energy, but also by using this energy more efficiently [6]. The EU has identified three main aspects for achieving its energy goals: improving energy efficiency, reducing GHG emissions, and widening the use of renewable energy resources; so, the EU governments have developed several documents related to energy and climate protection [19].
The energy efficiency policy established by the EU to reduce energy consumption and costs, as well as to reduce GHG emissions, is based on various legal acts and initiatives that bind all EU Member States. For example, the Latvian government, as one of the EU Member States, has ratified and signed several international treaties: The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, the Paris Agreement, the Montreal Protocol, the Kyoto Protocol, and the UN Sustainable Development Goals [18,20,21,22,23]. The Kyoto Protocol’s second article clearly states that each of the parties listed in Annex 1 is obliged to implement policies and measures that are in line with its own national circumstances, including “improving energy efficiency in key economic sectors”, as well as promoting sustainable development and reducing greenhouse gas emissions [23].
Overall, a number of legislative acts, initiatives, and agreements have contributed to the development and promotion of energy efficiency (see Figure 1). Many of them have already provided a significant boost in the last century, and it is expected that this momentum will continue to grow in the coming decades.
According to Directive 2010/31/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 19 May 2010 on the energy efficiency of buildings, as amended by Directive 2018/844 of 30 May 2018 and Regulation 2018/1999 of 11 December 2018, in 2017, a long-term strategy for building renovation was developed [6,27,28]. The main goal of the strategy was to stimulate investments in the renovation of the public and private residential building stock and commercial areas, determining the improvement of energy efficiency and the renovation of multi-apartment buildings as some of the goals of housing and energy policy. The strategy envisages appropriate, cost-effective renovation approaches for the building type and climatic zone, as well as the necessary political measures to promote building renovations [29]. It states that energy efficiency measures should be included as a key element in any strategy developed to address consumer vulnerability and energy poverty.
The directive emphasizes that improving energy efficiency strengthens energy security, lowers energy costs, and reduces GHG emissions. As energy-efficient buildings reduce the demand for heating fuel, including solid fuel, this has a positive impact on both indoor and outdoor air quality, thus contributing to EU air quality policy objectives [6,27,28].
It is also noted that improvements in energy efficiency can help achieve higher economic productivity and reduce energy poverty, thus improving the quality of life of the population. At a time when energy poverty affects around 50 million households in the EU, helping energy consumers reduce energy use in buildings can lead to lower consumer energy expenditure [30].
The directive states that, in line with the goals of the Paris Agreement, it is necessary to transform the entire EU building stock into near-zero energy buildings in the long term. However, the current volumes of building renovation are insufficient, so energy efficiency issues should be given more attention and considered as a full-fledged energy resource [8]. To facilitate the overcoming of energy efficiency obstacles, various energy policies in the form of energy programs are created in different EU countries [31].
With the Directive of the European Parliament and the Council since 2006, the EC has been paying attention to providing political support for the introduction of energy audits too. According to the European Energy Services Directive, Member States are required to implement high-quality energy audit schemes for large companies that do not have energy management systems in place, to regularly conduct energy audits, and to encourage small and medium-sized companies to conduct energy audits [6,32,33].
Energy audits and energy management systems play a key role in Article 8 of the Energy Efficiency Directive (EED) as a driver for improving energy efficiency in end-use sectors. According to the EED, Member States must promote and ensure the use of high-quality, cost-effective energy audits and energy management systems for all final consumers, including both large, small, and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) [6].

4. Energy Efficiency Performance Comparison in EU Member States

With Commission Recommendation (EU) 2021/1749, the Energy Efficiency First (EE1) principle was established, outlining specific actions for EU countries to ensure its proper application [34].
This principle strengthens other EU objectives and has been made legally binding for Member States, requiring its application in decision-making, policy-making, investment decisions, and energy planning activities, incl. integration in national energy and climate plans (NECP) [34,35,36,37].
Valuable insights into EU countries’ energy efficiency performance, enabling mutual comparison, are provided by the Odyssee-Mure database. Odyssee-Mure is a multi-year European Commission project that involves the development of an extensive statistical database (Enerdata) for key energy efficiency indicators in various economic sectors and energy efficiency policy instruments in EU Member States [38]. To evaluate how effective the EE1 principle has been integrated into the national NECPs, the quantitative indicator approach from the Odyssee and Mure databases was reviewed [16]. The indicator was applied to 14 EU Member States; this is the only database that collects indicators from at least that many Member States (see Table 1). The database employs 13 criteria (see Table 2), assessing a simple semi-quantitative scoring system ranging from 0 to 2. In this system, a score of 0 indicates non-compliance or minimal compliance, while a score of 2 reflects a high degree of compliance. In Table 1, the column ’Total’ sums up all the previously mentioned scores.
All 13 criteria were grouped into five pillars:
  • Policy-Making Process (criteria: screening process, in which both supply and demand options are compared with each other, comparison between different solutions via cost–benefit analysis, discount rates, multiple benefits (MBs), and economic efficiency potentials used as a guiding principle);
  • Removal of Barriers to Energy Efficiency (criteria: prevention of distorted markets, access to information, access to capital, reduction in risk and uncertainty);
  • Tackling Energy Efficiency Challenges (criteria: energy poverty, sufficiency);
  • Integration of EE1 at regional and local level (criteria: EE1 principle on regional and local level);
  • Monitoring Energy Efficiency (criteria: monitoring) [16,39].
For comparison, Ireland, Latvia, and Germany were selected for deeper analysis. Ireland was chosen for having the highest score among the 14 participating Member States, Latvia represents a mid-range score, and Germany had the lowest score.
In Ireland, which ranks first in terms of EE1 integration, both supply-side and demand-side solutions are considered in the energy efficiency policy-making process, with the same discount rates applied for both sides. The impact of existing and planned policies is compared with the economic energy efficiency potential and financial programs that have been established to support the transition to green energy. The government uses targeted energy efficiency measures. Extensive campaigns ensure awareness of both supply-side and demand-side opportunities. However, there is no systematic approach to checking possible market imbalances and reviewing policies [16].
In Latvia, the EE1 principle has not been specifically implemented at the regional or local level. Several shortcomings exist in the energy efficiency policy: the impact of existing and planned policies is not compared with the economic energy efficiency potential, no cost–benefit analysis is conducted, and no measures have been introduced to reduce investment risks in energy efficiency, in addition to a lack of financial support. The strong point of the policy is the monitoring area, where measures are tracked depending on the sector, program, and actions. However, the monitoring would need to be enhanced by an evaluation of the overall energy efficiency progress and trends [16].
The EE1 principle has not been fully implemented in Germany either. However, comprehensive information campaigns have been developed to raise awareness of both supply-side and demand-side options. Financial programs and funds have been established to support the transition to green energy, meaning that these instruments target not only investments in energy efficiency, but also supply-side and demand-side investments. However, no cost–benefit analysis was conducted, the same discount rates are used for supply-side and demand-side options, and there was no systematic approach to check possible market imbalances and review policies. Furthermore, no specific measures have been identified to promote energy efficiency adequacy, with information provision and awareness-raising being key enablers of the renovation policy (see Figure 2) [16].
After displaying the scores of the 13 criteria, it is immediately apparent which of the criteria stagnates the assessments of all countries—these are MBs, prevention of distorted markets, and sufficiency. However, the highest scores are observed in the criteria comparison of supply and demand, as well as access to capital and information.
Ireland, as the best example, has achieved a maximum of 3 points in 7 out of 13 criteria, which significantly contributes to its top ranking, while in contrast, Germany has achieved maximum score in 3 out of 13 criteria; comparatively, Latvia has maximum score in 1 out of 13 criteria.
Despite Germany having achieved the maximum assessment in several criteria, in the remaining criteria, its assessment most often reaches only one point, which also prevents it from having a higher total score.
The European Energy Efficiency Scoreboard from the Odysee-Mure database allows for the assessment of energy efficiency performance across European countries. It is based on energy efficiency indicators from the Odysee database and information and data on policies and energy savings, relative to total energy consumption collected in the Mure database [39].
The performance of each country is analyzed through three categories: energy efficiency levels, progress, and policy indicators. Each category is scored on a scale from 0 to 1, with 1 representing the highest performance. The overall energy efficiency performance is calculated as the average score of these three categories, with each category given equal weight (one third of the total score) (Figure 3). The score reflects quantitative impact (i.e., energy savings) derived from the energy efficiency assessments.
The figure provides a comprehensive overview of how countries perform in energy efficiency compared to other European countries. Some countries, such as Luxembourg, Germany, and France, stand out with higher scores, indicating stronger energy efficiency performance, while several Eastern European countries (for example, Bulgaria, Lithuania, Czechia, and others) have lower scores, signaling less developed policy initiatives and slower progress in energy efficiency.
It is noted that, despite the significant promotion of interest with the help of various informative campaigns, the public’s interest in participating in measures to increase energy efficiency is still at a low level, assuming that the residents mostly avoid becoming involved directly because of the large bureaucracy and many necessary administrative measures. This is linked to the need to go through extensive bureaucratic processes to receive funding from the EU structural funds, the involvement of many people by organizing general meetings of residents, and educational and explanatory events, in order to obtain the consent of the majority of the residents of the building. Often there are cases when the implementation of the energy efficiency measures of buildings is stopped because the homeowners are not interested and do not want to become involved. An undeniably significant role in the low involvement of the population is also related to the low solvency of the homeowners, debt obligations for utility payments, including for heating, the relatively long payback period of energy efficiency measures, and relatively high interest rates for financing [29,37].

5. General Overview of Energy Audits

The energy auditing of buildings or companies is a process that helps to identify problems with utility engineering in facilities, improve the comfort of the building’s residents, and improve the efficiency of energy consumption in buildings and companies. In companies, energy audits also help to identify weak links in the production process, offering solutions to improve the efficiency of processes. In addition, by conducting an energy audit and analyzing the report, it is possible to evaluate the energy saving options offered. The audit process is initiated as needed, and it evaluates changes in building use, the status of utility engineering, and the applicability of new energy-efficient technologies [40]. An energy audit provides a company the opportunity to identify potential energy efficiency improvement measures and reduces energy costs [41].
Energy audits are an energy service that does not increase energy efficiency itself but is considered as an important step towards investments and energy efficiency measures. Energy audits usually are outlined in both political documents and regulatory acts as well as in the scientific literature [42,43]. Other authors point out that energy audits and energy consumption monitoring are the first steps towards increasing energy efficiency [43]. Energy audit reports can be characterized as the main component in decision-making related to energy management [44]. Energy audits are also popularized as an effective tool to promote investments in energy efficiency measures in the residential sector. Although energy audits have been operating in many countries for several decades, information on the impact of audits on the household sector is conflicting. This is related to the fact that a significant part of the energy efficiency recommendations was ignored, the main reason being that maintenance companies and homeowners considered their homes already energy-efficient enough [45].
Any energy audit process (see Figure 4) begins with the formation of an appropriate, certified energy audit team or an individual who clearly defines the scope of the audit. Before the audit begins, it is very important for the expert to review the available data to determine the duration of the audit, the costs, the size of the team (in case of companies), and to request all the necessary information about the building [40].
Energy audits of companies can be carried out on at least three different levels depending on the time, budget constraints, complexity of the company, and client requirements [46,47]. The basic level only provides general recommendations for energy and water savings, this type of audit does not provide long-term data analysis, while the second level provides an inspection and energy data analysis as well as recommendations for energy savings [40,47]. The most detailed is the third level, where energy consumption is finely analyzed with additional developed proposals, the priority of their implementation is indicated, and even capital investments are indicated [47]. Regardless of the level division, the procedures of these levels are not detailed in standards or directives, leaving it to the energy audit team, which decides which data to collect and which improvements to evaluate [48].
Energy audit is especially important for historical buildings as they are energy-intensive and outdated structures, the restoration of which requires huge investments, and the improvement of buildings may sometimes be limited by the projects of individual protective zones [49]. Improving the energy efficiency of such buildings would mean environmental and financial benefits, as well as preserving cultural and historical heritage. In addition, the integration of renewable energy sources in such buildings would provide an additional influx to the energy balance of the RES of countries and reduce the use of fossil fuels [27,50].
To achieve the European Union’s target of “nearly zero energy buildings”, local governments have a decisive role in supporting and implementing energy-efficient measures at the local level [51].

5.1. Involved Parties of the Energy Audit

The parties involved in an energy audit can be directly or indirectly subject to the energy audit. One of the parties involved is the energy auditor (legal entity) or the independent expert who conducts qualitative and quantitative measurements of the object, selects and applies data analysis methods, conducts an inspection of the object, obtains accurate information about the existing energy consumption of the building and equipment, determines and compares the most economically efficient energy efficiency measures, determines the priorities of energy efficiency measures, and determines the possibilities of reducing CO2 emissions [52,53]. However, primarily, they must recognize the client’s wishes and develop an energy audit report (in the case of companies) and an energy-efficiency certificate (in the case of buildings) [47]. The energy audit client or customer can be a company (management or engineers), an individual (homeowner), a municipality, a state institution, or any other private or legal entities who want to carry out energy efficiency measures, determine heat losses, receive a summary of data, or receive any other benefit that can be obtained from an energy audit. They can also not benefit if they do not consider the auditor’s recommendations [44].
The main audit requirements are originally set in relevant EU directives and standards, whereas the state and its institutions, based on the relevant directives and standards, provide detailed conditions for carrying out energy audits, set requirements for their performers, create a normative and institutional basis, create energy efficiency funds, provide support for research, and monitor the implementation of various projects. The functions of the EU are like those of the state—it creates regulatory acts and issues directives, and allocates and monitors various funds [49]. Employees, owners, or household members of the building/company where the audit is carried out provide access to the object, if necessary, provide information and/or analyze the data obtained, and vote for the introduction of energy efficiency measures [45,54]. Energy service companies provide access to energy services; they are employers for energy auditors and independent experts of the energy efficiency of buildings, who, in accordance with all the regulatory acts established in the state, offer their goods and professional services to consumers and ensure their availability and competitive prices. Research and educational institutions provide research and project implementation, qualified training of energy auditors, and certification [55].

5.2. Financing of Energy Audits

Financing of energy audits is an essential aspect of promoting their implementation, although energy audits provide substantial benefits, companies and other institutions are in no hurry to carry out audits due to their significantly high costs, as well as the expenses associated with necessary improvements [56]. Most commonly, municipal institutions and energy-intensive companies conduct energy audits because they are a state or municipal requirement, not due to their own initiative. Consequently, in many countries and municipalities, governments, as well as private funds, are considering ways to not only co-finance energy audits, but also provide various loan and credit options, often under favorable conditions [57,58].
In Germany, for example, to encourage small and medium-sized companies to conduct energy audits, the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action launched a Special Fund program that provided financial assistance for energy audits in small and medium-sized companies and was administered by a state-owned German institution—an investment and development bank “KfW” in cooperation with regional partners and chambers of industry and commerce. The main goal of this program was to overcome the information barriers related to the implementation of energy efficiency measures with an energy audit [59]. The provision of information and consultancy services is only covered by financial support, and the audits are carried out by independent energy auditors registered with “KfW”, providing reports on the audit results, energy saving potential, and a plan for increasing energy efficiency. The daily rate of energy auditors in the amount of 60–80% was covered by the granted grants. However, only part of the proposed energy efficiency measures was used by the companies. Therefore, the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action has created two additional support mechanisms for energy-audited companies that make energy-efficient investments. One of them is a financing scheme that supports the investment of small and medium-sized companies in the field of energy-efficient technologies. The Federal Office for Economic Affairs and Export Control oversees this initiative. The other is a low-interest financing program managed by “KfW”, available to companies investing in energy efficiency-related equipment. Companies have the opportunity to use both support mechanisms [60].
Energy audits are also widely used in Scandinavia—the Swedish Energy Audit Program is a state-funded program aimed primarily at small and medium-sized enterprises to help them develop and implement energy efficiency measures, incl. to finance energy audits. This program was introduced in the period from 2010 to 2014 as a tool for overcoming obstacles to energy efficiency by subsidizing energy audits of small and medium-sized industrial enterprises [31,61]. Nowadays, with the Implementation of the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD) in Sweden, various policy instruments and supportive measures are available, including support for energy efficiency and energy audit conduction [62], offering support of up to 50% of eligible costs if the energy efficiency measure is estimated to result in the building’s energy performance improved by at least 20 percent [62,63].
In Denmark, energy efficiency is one of the cornerstones of energy policy. The Danish parliament subsidized energy audits from the state budget, introducing standardized reports on heat consumption reduction measures. Since 2006, Denmark has aligned itself with the European Union’s energy efficiency policy and goals. To promote energy efficiency in residential and public buildings, the Electricity Savings Trust (since 2010, the Danish Energy Savings Trust) was established. A fee paid by each electricity customer funded the trust, and several of the trust’s campaigns sponsored government-subsidized personal energy audits [64]. Since 2020, Denmark has implemented the Danish Climate Agreement for Energy and Industry 2020, also providing for mandatory energy audits for large companies, while at the same time offering a competitive subsidy scheme related to private enterprises to reduce energy consumption and CO2 emissions [33,65,66].

5.3. Cost of Energy Audits

The industry, the size of the facility, the qualifications of the energy auditor and/or the audit company, the type of energy audit, the accuracy and completeness, the information and the data provided, and the level of competition in the auditor market, all have a significant impact on the cost of energy audits [67].
Aspects such as taxes, the general cost of living, energy costs, auditor qualifications and other factors will vary across Member States. For example, an energy audit in Germany or the United Kingdom may cost significantly more than one in Eastern Europe. Of course, some businesses choose more costly auditing methods, such as hiring a larger team, a company with more expertise, or a company with a better reputation instead of hiring an independent expert [68].
However, Table 3 presents the estimated costs of energy audits for manufacturing companies across different EU Member States. These energy audits must meet the minimum criteria outlined in Annex VI to the EU EED and any additional criteria established in national legislation transposing Article 8. These requirements ensure that audits are conducted by qualified auditors with the necessary education, skills, and experience to guarantee the quality of the audits [4].
It should be mentioned that the expenses listed below pertain to manufacturing companies; it cannot be excluded that an energy audit of a manufacturing company is often more time-consuming and more costly than, for example, an energy audit of an office building. The price ranges reflect the average costs for energy audits in manufacturing companies and are included solely to illustrate the price differences between Member States.
Table 3 shows the differences in energy audit costs for manufacturing sites relative to the total area occupied. As a general trend, the costs decrease as the area increases. This indicates that larger manufacturing sites do not necessarily require audits that are directly proportional to the size of the company or its energy intensity.
In general, energy audits and various energy efficiency measures are promoted all over the world, which are subsidized in various ways by companies, municipalities and countries. Despite different approaches, all these measures contribute to the reduction of CO2 emissions, increase energy efficiency at the national and municipal level, and reduce costs related to energy consumption.

6. Case Study: Energy Audit Experience in Latvia

Latvia’s national energy efficiency policy is aimed at reducing the consumption of energy resources and increasing energy efficiency in all sectors of the economy in order to achieve the energy efficiency goal set by the EU. In general, Latvia has several policies and programs aimed at improving energy efficiency, saving energy, and reducing GHG emissions to achieve sustainable and environmentally friendly development [42,69,70,71].
Currently, in Latvia, energy efficiency measures and conditions for energy audits are affected and regulated by the energy efficiency law (for companies), the building energy efficiency law (for buildings), as well as other complementary regulatory acts, such as Cabinet of Ministers Regulation No. 487 “Rules for Energy Audits of Enterprises” (Figure 5) and Cabinet of Ministers Regulation No. 222 “Building energy efficiency calculation methods and building energy certification rules” [53,72].
Currently, the legislators set out all the competency requirements and certification procedures for energy auditors of companies as well as independent experts of the energy certification of buildings, the monitoring and responsibility of the energy auditor and the expert, the general procedures for conducting energy audits, as well as the registration and content of an energy audit report and experts issued energy efficiency certificate of buildings in the Building Information System and the procedures for its use. Currently several companies in Latvia offer energy audit services [73].
According to the data of the State Agency “Latvian National Accreditation Bureau”, there are seven institutions in Latvia whose sphere is the energy audit of companies and which comply with the requirements of LVS EN ISO/IEC 17020:2012 and are competent to carry out inspection or assessment and preparation of the report [74,75].
However, the Building Information System maintains and provides a register of all independent experts in energy efficiency of buildings field, where it is possible to obtain information about each expert, its competence area and certificate status (currently, by December 2024, 75 experts have active certificate status) [76].
In Latvia the competence of an independent expert of energy efficiency of buildings field is checked and the supervised by the Latvian Heat, Gas and Water Technologies Engineers Association, which in turn is accredited institution by Latvian National Accreditation Bureau [13].
Building energy audits are performed for all types of buildings—private houses, multi-apartment buildings, and public buildings. There is no set ceiling for the prices of energy audits, and the price of such a service depends on many factors: building size, location, type of building, scope of the audit, assigned information, and other factors [67,73]. Regarding the energy audit of buildings, in Latvia, there exists two kinds of energy efficiency certificates for the buildings in operation. Firstly, the energy performance certificate that is based on both calculated and measured data of energy consumption of building and a list of energy savings and energy efficiency measures is given. Secondly, the energy performance certificate that is based on measured data only. Such a certificate is especially suitable for cases where the building is being sold or rented. A list of energy savings and energy efficiency measures is not obligatory for this kind of certificate but can be added if the homeowner has demanded it. Moreover, new buildings being constructed are issued an energy efficiency certificate based on calculated data [42,77]. Since most buildings in Latvia meet the requirements of class E and F, the improvement and renovation of their energy efficiency is very urgent [77,78].
In Latvia, the Cabinet of Ministers has issued the Energy Audit Regulations for Enterprises, which determines the procedure for conducting an energy audit of enterprises, the requirements for energy auditors, the submission of reports, data reporting, and collection, and other information to be followed by all enterprise energy auditors. For insight, Figure 5 shows the scheme of the company energy audit [53].
Municipalities are also increasingly conducting energy audits of public buildings to reduce total energy consumption and mitigate substantial costs. Whether the municipality conducts energy audits for public buildings or co-finances their implementation in residential buildings may also depend on whether the municipality has obtained energy management system certification, such as ISO 50001 [79].
Several municipalities in Latvia offer the opportunity to receive co-financing for the energy audit of multi-apartment residential buildings, with a support intensity of up to 100%, for example, Talsi, city in Latvia, which offers municipal co-financing for energy audits up to 700 EUR and also up to 10,000 EUR for energy efficiency measures that were specified in the energy audit in the report [80,81].
The municipality of Liepaja also actively invites residents to use the support granted to multi-apartment residential buildings to improve energy efficiency by carrying out a series of measures, including energy audits and the renovation of buildings. In terms of the number of renovated buildings, Liepaja is the leader among cities because the implementation of energy efficiency improvement measures there has been particularly active so far. Liepaja municipality offers municipal co-financing options for the partial compensation of project documentation, develops mechanisms to facilitate formalities, which in turn makes it easier for residents to reach a common agreement, as well as invests resources in informing residents and maintenance companies [82].
Overall, in Latvia, co-financing support is available for energy audits and also energy efficiency measures for multi-apartment buildings, as well as privately owned houses. Similar approaches and support measures are available for company activities that raise the company’s energy efficiency [58,83].

7. Conclusions

For more than ten years, the European Union has set increasingly higher energy efficiency targets in order to promote the energy security and energy independence of the Member States, the achievement of climate targets, and the development of a green economy. At the EU, national, and regional level, several documents have been developed that define the guidelines and goals of the energy efficiency policy, including the necessary measures to promote building renovations. Since EU Member States and other countries also have a binding obligation to reduce energy poverty, the promotion of the energy efficiency of buildings and companies is an essential tool in fulfilling the obligation. As the housing stock ages, it needs renovation measures more and more urgently. Despite its relevance, it is not intended to establish the obligation to carry out energy efficiency measures for buildings, thus leaving the agreement on the carrying out of such measures in the voluntary control of building owners.
Unused energy efficiency improvement potential exists in many sectors of the national economy. Thus, companies participating in these programs can improve their energy efficiency, which in turn contributes to the reduction of CO2 emissions. Energy audits are a widely recognized service, which companies and institutions often choose to use for energy efficiency purposes [45,49]. However, it is not clear whether they serve effectively for energy efficiency, since even during energy audits, there are several energy efficiency barriers—customers who do not want to invest in building or equipment renovation, data editing, object inspection, etc.—which the energy auditor or independent expert may encounter.
Research on energy audits and their connection to the legislative and policy framework confirms that there are no detailed standards and support programs that are identical across all EU Member States. To comply with the requirements of the directives, the governments of the EU Member States, including the Latvian government, have implemented various efficiency-enhancing measures and policies achieving varying levels of effectiveness. However, there are differences in how each Member State has interpreted and adapted the EU requirements, so the exchange of information between Member States based on their experience has been proposed as a key improvement aspect for countries to move together towards a Green Deal. However, it could be difficult to compare international energy audit programs because the programs are implemented and evaluated differently in each country. A combined system, such as providing information, setting goals or subsidies, can make energy audits more effective [84]. Similarly, such a system will be more effective in reducing CO2 emissions, especially if it is combined with other policy instruments [85]. Andersson’s et al. study confirms that in the evaluations of energy audit programs there are differences in both methodology and results, indicating a lack of consistency in the classification of measures [48]. For these reasons, EU countries should agree on specific but mutual types of energy audits and methods for conducting them, creating standards and manuals, and adapting them to EU climate neutrality requirements.

Author Contributions

Conceptualization, D.B. and D.L.; methodology, V.L., K.Z. and I.B.; formal analysis, T.B., K.L. and V.L.; investigation, V.L. and K.L.; data curation, V.L. and A.E.B.; writing—original draft preparation, I.B., K.L. and V.L.; writing—review and editing, K.L. and K.Z.; visualization, T.B.; supervision, D.L.; project administration, D.B.; funding acquisition, K.L. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

Funding

This work has been supported by the European Social Fund within the Project No 8.2.2.0/20/I/008 «Strengthening of PhD students and academic personnel of Riga Technical University and BA School of Business and Finance in the strategic fields of specialization» of the Specific Objective 8.2.2 «To Strengthen Academic Staff of Higher Education Institutions in Strategic Specialization Areas» of the Operational Programme «Growth and Employment».

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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Figure 1. Historical timeline of the different energy audit promotion measures [3,4,8,24,25,26].
Figure 1. Historical timeline of the different energy audit promotion measures [3,4,8,24,25,26].
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Figure 2. Evaluation of criteria in three Member States [16].
Figure 2. Evaluation of criteria in three Member States [16].
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Figure 3. The overall energy efficiency performance in Member States [16,39].
Figure 3. The overall energy efficiency performance in Member States [16,39].
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Figure 4. The energy audit process scheme [40].
Figure 4. The energy audit process scheme [40].
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Figure 5. Steps of the industrial energy audit [41,53].
Figure 5. Steps of the industrial energy audit [41,53].
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Table 1. Description of queries for bibliometric analysis.
Table 1. Description of queries for bibliometric analysis.
No.Query SettingKeywords in QueryNumber of Documents
Query in SCOPUS
1.Advanced query in all fields, in all published documents in year range of 2009–2024ALL (“energy audit”) OR ALL (“energy auditing”) AND PUBYEAR > 2008 AND PUBYEAR < 20259446
2.Advanced query in title, abstract and keywords, in all published documents in year range of 2009–2024TITLE-ABS-KEY (“Green Deal”) OR TITLE-ABS-KEY (“fit for 55”) AND PUBYEAR > 2008 AND PUBYEAR < 20253441
3.Advanced query in title, in all published documents in year range of 2009–2024TITLE (“energy audit”) OR TITLE (“energy auditing”) AND PUBYEAR > 2008 AND PUBYEAR < 2025631
4.Advanced query in title, in all published documents in year range of 2009–2024TITLE (“energy audit”) AND ALL (“energy efficiency”) AND PUBYEAR > 2008 AND PUBYEAR < 2025366
5.Advanced query in title, abstract and keywords, in all published documents in year range of 2009–2024TITLE-ABS-KEY (“Green Deal”) OR TITLE-ABS-KEY (“fit for 55”) AND PUBYEAR > 2008 AND PUBYEAR < 2025321
6.Advanced query in title, in all published documents in year range of 2009–2024TITLE (“energy efficiency first”) OR TITLE (“energy efficiency first principle”) AND PUBYEAR > 2008 AND PUBYEAR < 202517
Query in MDPI
7.Advanced query in full text field, in all published documents in year range of 2009–2024FULLTEXT (“energy policies”) AND FULLTEXT (“energy policy”) AND “energy efficiency”
With adding search filter for years between 2009–2024		3448
8.Advanced query in all fields, in all published documents in year range of 2009–2024ALL (“energy audit”) OR ALL (“energy efficiency audit”) AND “energy efficiency”
With adding search filter for years between 2009–2024		821
9.Advanced query in title, in all published documents in year range of 2009–2024TITLE (“energy audit”) AND ALL (“energy efficiency”)
With adding search filter for years between 2009–2024		23
Query in EUROPA SEARCH
10.Query in all fields and all formats (Web, Word, PowerPoint, Excel, PDF)Energy efficiency6061
Table 2. Overview of the integration of the EE1 principle into the NECP of the countries included in the Odysee-Mure database.
Table 2. Overview of the integration of the EE1 principle into the NECP of the countries included in the Odysee-Mure database.
CountryTotalPolicy-Making ProcessRemoval of BarriersChallengesRegional and Local LevelMonitoring
Ireland3.180.890.690.60.50.5
Slovenia2.750.50.650.60.50.5
France2.720.50.620.60.50.5
Netherlands2.580.50.5800.51
Spain2.570.390.580.60.50.5
Latvia2.540.320.420.30.51
Denmark2.530.290.540.20.51
Malta2.50.390.310.80.50.5
Austria2.330.420.310.60.50.5
Italy2.110.390.420.30.50.5
Lithuania2.110.390.420.30.50.5
Poland2.110.50.310.30.50.5
Sweden1.990.610.3800.50.5
Germany1.980.290.6900.50.5
Table 3. Price range of energy audits in 5 EU Member States in euros [68].
Table 3. Price range of energy audits in 5 EU Member States in euros [68].
CountryEnergy Audit Costs, Euro, for Building Area
<2500 m22500–7000 m27000–15,000 m215,000–40,000 m2>40,000 m2
Germany10,00012,00014,00018,00023,000
France900010,000–11,00013,000–14,00017,00024,000–25,000
Italy8000–900010,00012,000–13,00015,000–16,00022,000–23,000
Denmark800010,00015,00025,00029,000
Romania900017,000–18,00021,000–22,00022,000–23,000250,00–27,000
Sweden900011,00016,00027,00032,000
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MDPI and ACS Style

Liberova, V.; Bremane, I.; Lauka, D.; Laktuka, K.; Bezrucko, T.; Zvirbule, K.; Bezrucko, A.E.; Blumberga, D. Unleashing Energy Potential: Insights of Energy Audit Practices. Energies 2025, 18, 522. https://doi.org/10.3390/en18030522

AMA Style

Liberova V, Bremane I, Lauka D, Laktuka K, Bezrucko T, Zvirbule K, Bezrucko AE, Blumberga D. Unleashing Energy Potential: Insights of Energy Audit Practices. Energies. 2025; 18(3):522. https://doi.org/10.3390/en18030522

Chicago/Turabian Style

Liberova, Veronika, Inguna Bremane, Dace Lauka, Krista Laktuka, Tereza Bezrucko, Karina Zvirbule, Alise Egija Bezrucko, and Dagnija Blumberga. 2025. "Unleashing Energy Potential: Insights of Energy Audit Practices" Energies 18, no. 3: 522. https://doi.org/10.3390/en18030522

APA Style

Liberova, V., Bremane, I., Lauka, D., Laktuka, K., Bezrucko, T., Zvirbule, K., Bezrucko, A. E., & Blumberga, D. (2025). Unleashing Energy Potential: Insights of Energy Audit Practices. Energies, 18(3), 522. https://doi.org/10.3390/en18030522

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