Next winter we could save up to 1.23 billion cubic meters of gas between the residential and tertiary sectors. This is the amount needed to heat about one million homes. This emerges from a study on energy consumption trends conducted by Enea, the National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development. According to the Agency, interventions in redevelopment and containment and efficiency measures, such as replacing old gas generators and introducing Ets2, could contribute to achieving such significant savings.
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Residential and tertiary sectors
According to the study, in the residential sector it could be possible to save 0.9 billion Smc of gas. Of these, 0.8 billion would be obtained from the reintroduction of natural gas consumption containment measures provided by the National Plan adopted in 2022 following the energy crisis triggered by the Russia-Ukraine conflict. The remaining part from redevelopment interventions, supported by incentives such as the Ecobonus and the Home Bonus.
As for the tertiary sector, the reduction in consumption is more modest and is estimated at about 0.3 billion Smc. Most of this would come from containment measures (0.25 billion), while 0.06 billion from efficiency measures such as, for example, replacing old gas generators with modern heat pumps, but also Ets2, the tool that will extend the emissions trading system to buildings (residential, commercial, and institutional).
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Ets2, explains Francesca Caffari, researcher at the Enea Laboratory for Energy Efficiency in Buildings and Urban Development, “will lead to an increase in costs for those who continue to use fossil fuels (up to 230 euros annually per family)” while those who transform their homes into zero-emission buildings, eliminating the use of fossil fuels, “will not feel the economic impact of the new system.”
Structural measures
However, as the study reiterates, more structural efficiency interventions will also be necessary, while maintaining the importance of containment measures such as regulating the heating temperature of environments, which ensure the greatest volumes of short-term savings. According to Nicolandrea Calabrese, head of the Enea Laboratory for Energy Efficiency in Buildings and Urban Development, in fact, replacing obsolete systems and insulating buildings “guarantees a stable, progressive reduction independent of users’ daily habits, protecting the country from energy market fluctuations.”
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