Sustainable practices related to increasingly pronounced climate changes enter our daily lives and are accordingly reflected in our legislation.
In this area is the Ordinance № РД-02-20-3 of 9 November 2022 about the technical requirements for the energy performance of buildings (The Ordinance), adopted by the Ministry of Regional Development and Public Works. The Ordinance is published and has entered into force on 18 November 2022.
Its aim is:
- to determine the energy performance of buildings indicators (EPB indicators) and the requirements for the energy performance of buildings;
- to introduce a national calculation methodology for their evaluation, applied for all buildings that subject to energy efficiency certification;
- to define a scale of electricity usage classes and to introduce energy efficiency requirements for building investment projects.
- to encourage the creation of energy efficient buildings.
Scope
The new ordinance concerns both new buildings and already built ones and should be applied in the following cases:
- design of residential buildings and buildings for public services;
- design related to achieving the energy efficiency requirements for major renovations, overhauls, alterations, reconstructions, additions and extensions to existing buildings;
- evaluation for building investment projects;
- surveying and certifying buildings for energy efficiency under the regulations of the Energy Efficiency Act, that’s aims to verify the current states of building energy usage and energy characteristics;
- calculation of EPB indicators of some industrial buildings;
- design and surveying for energy efficiency for buildings – cultural property, included in the scope of the Cultural Heritage Act.
The Ordinance could also be applied in certain cases in order to achieve partial energy performance of certain buildings.
Parameters
The Ordinance contains a precise regulation of how the indicators of the energy characteristics of buildings are calculated; the different groups of indicators; the energy consumption classes from the lowest class “G” – corresponding to the worst energy efficiency, to the highest class “A” – corresponding to the best energy efficiency (the methodological framework of Delegated Regulation (EU) No. 244/2012 of 2012 Commission)
The technical requirements for the energy performance are expressed by the value of the total (integrated) energy performance of buildings “specific annual consumption of primary energy” (kWh/m2 per year), to which the Ordinance establishes a minimum level from the scale of energy usage classes. The requirements for energy efficiency are more demanding for the new buildings, while for the already existing ones the Ordinance makes it mandatory to offer a package of energy saving measures when an energy efficiency survey is made. The energy performance of new buildings is certified by an energy performance certificate and the one of already commissioned buildings are certified by survey for energy performance.
The Ordinance is applied for investment projects for which the proceedings for approval of an investment project and the proceedings for issuance of a building permit begins after the Ordinance enters into force.
The wide scope of the Regulation, as well as its very object shows the legislator’s focus on energy efficiency and energy saving, that can be seen in other legislative acts.
Tax Relief
The Local Taxes and Fees Act envisions exemption from taxes for buildings with very good or good energy performance. The maximum period for which the tax relief can be used is 10 years.
The buildings commissioned before 1 January 2005 that have received certificates for electricity usage class “B” and those, commissioned before 1 January 1990 that have received certificates for electricity usage class “C” are exempt from tax:
- for a period of 7 years, from the year following the year of issue of the certificate
- 10 years – if they apply measures for using renewable sources of energy for producing the energy, necessary to meet the building’s needs.
The buildings commissioned after 1 January 1990 and before 1 January 2005 that have received certificates for electricity usage class “C”, and the ones commissioned before 1 January 1990 that have received certificates for electricity usage class “D” are exempt from tax:
- for a period of 3 from the year following the year of issue of the certificate
- 5 years if they apply measures for using renewable sources of energy for producing the energy, necessary to meet the building’s needs.
The exemption from taxes is not applied in the cases, when the building has received a certificate for electricity usage class as a result of taking measures for energy efficiency, financed by public funds.
The right to tax exemption is declared with the declaration under Art. 14 Local Taxes and Fees Act.
