Éco Energie Tertiaire: energy consumption data must be submitted by December 31, 2022
Éco Energie Tertiaire is a regulatory requirement under the French tertiary sector decree, which requires tertiary sector players to progressively reduce the energy consumption of their buildings, including data centers, to contribute to fighting climate change. The decree goes beyond the energy renovation of buildings: data center operators are required to optimize their building energy consumption on an ongoing basis, and to report this data on the Ademe's OPERAT platform.
Who is affected by the tertiary sector decree?
The tertiary decree (no. 2019-771 of July 23, 2019) concerns owners or operators of buildings accommodating tertiary activities (including data centers) in the private or public sector, with a surface area (or cumulative surface area) exceeding 1,000 m².
What are the objectives of the tertiary sector decree?
Stemming from the Élan law, the tertiary decree or “tertiary eco-energy scheme” published in July 2019, requires buildings in the tertiary sector to achieve significant energy savings. Operators are required to reduce consumption by at least 40% by 2030, 50% by 2040, and 60% by 2050. Targets are progressive: they can be reached in relative or absolute terms.
What actions are required?
By December 31, 2022, building owners and operators must create an account and declare the energy consumption of their premises on the Observatoire de la Performance Energétique de la Rénovation et des Actions du Tertiaire (OPERAT), the energy performance data platform managed by Ademe.
What data must be transmitted to the OPERAT platform?
The data to be transmitted to the OPERAT platform are as follows:
- Entity concerned;
- Surface area of each building or part of a building;
- Tertiary activity carried out;
- Energy consumption in 2020 and 2021;
- Choice of reference year and associated consumption;
- Initial reference situation in terms of intensity of use (time or surface).
Note that an important change could be made to the calculation of surface areas subject to tax: if the tertiary surface area covers 1,000 m2 or more, any other surface area in the building not normally subject to tax would be included in the calculation of the overall surface area for energy consumption.
Éco Energie Tertiaire certification and rating
Once the data has been transmitted, since the “Absolute values II” decree of April 13, 2022, the OPERAT platform provides an annual report on consumption compared with reduction targets expressed in absolute values for a large number of activities in metropolitan France. This comparison takes into account reference consumption values for heating and cooling, as well as actual climatic variations. The certificate comes with an Éco Energie Tertiaire score, which qualifies the progress made in reducing energy consumption.
What are the risks associated with the non-declaration and non-achievement of objectives?
In the event of non-transmission of information to OPERAT or failure to submit an action plan, and if they fail to achieve objectives (even after several formal warnings by the local police authority), a sanction mechanism based on the Name & Shame principle is applied to operators concerned by the decree, after formal notice, as well as an administrative fine of €7,500 for legal entities.
