Have the French suddenly become more virtuous?
All opinion polls show that the French, and especially the younger generations, have fears about the future of our world, especially on ecological issues. Indeed, according to a survey by LCI, eco-anxiety is gaining 74% of French people, 85% of them fear the appearance of phenomena related to climate change in their region within 5 years. We should therefore be able to rejoice at the announcements of RTE on the 8.5% decrease in our energy consumption, which the state has widely promoted.
However, can we consider that this decrease is attributable to a collective awareness of the issues and to profound changes in our uses? It is obvious that the impact of regulations that have become stricter in France with the tertiary decree is forcing a certain number of economic actors to take measures in favor of more virtuous practices. However, on a population scale, it is difficult to attribute these results to profound changes in our consumption patterns. The main reason for this decrease is directly linked to the energy crisis and the unprecedented increase in supply prices forcing many individuals and professionals to change their uses, creating operating risks for many small and medium-sized businesses. Government incentives have had little effect, even if public policies aimed at containing the effects of the increase can be seen as a valuable aid.
In France, the new construction standards for several years now have largely contributed to making our buildings less energy consuming. But what about existing buildings, which represent the majority of the stock? The evolution of awareness is a reality but it is slow and the means of action to fight against our energy drifts are still underdeveloped.
Changing our habits will therefore require education and the impact of each individual in this necessarily collective effort.
Beyond this generalized awareness, we are convinced that the modification of our uses must go through a reinforcement of innovation and technologies allowing better consumption. There is a lot of room for improvement and the implementation of more virtuous management rules is an obligation if we want to sustainably transform our approach to the challenge of the century.
The implementation of technologies and services that allow buildings to be less energy intensive is one of the keys. Some of the answers are already to be found in the ecosystem of innovative companies that are working every day to transform mindsets and habits, in particular through the implementation of tools that are often inexpensive and non-intrusive.
As the song says, “for the young people of the year 2000, it’s not the same deal anymore” and the state will have to participate in this democratization and participate even more in the promotion of existing solutions that have proven their worth in order to reach our sobriety objectives.
Territorial Communities: a complex building fleet facing the soaring energy prices
This winter, many communities have had to make decisions to deal with rising electricity prices: closing swimming pools and museums, reducing Christmas decorations, lowering temperatures in schools, etc. And most communities have had to renegotiate their energy contracts, becoming aware of the rise and volatility of energy prices, seeing their energy budgets increase four or fivefold.
“It’s a shame to see that this awareness of energy issues is the result of a budgetary rather than an environmental problem, but it’s no less important that this awareness has taken place,” says Alric Marc, founder of Eficia, a Frenchtech expert in energy management for tertiary buildings and local authorities recently referenced by the UGAP.
He continues: “These past few weeks have made us realize that local authorities don’t know what they really consume, or where their consumption comes from. A swimming pool does not consume like a town hall, nor like a school, etc. In a community, no building is running at all. In a community, no building functions like another, which makes energy management and control particularly complex. It is now essential that they take stock of how they consume energy and monitor their consumption on a daily basis.
Alric Marc deplores the fact that the actions taken until now to reduce their energy budget and participate in the national effort have been “short-term solutions, even very short-term.
The objective now is to make these gains last, to make them accepted and above all to do them in a more intelligent way. Because closing a pool cannot be a long-term solution. On the other hand, we can make energy savings in the medium term by investing in switching public lighting to LED bulbs, replacing old oil-fired heating systems with heat pumps, etc. These are just examples, but I think that 2023 will be a year of strong investment by local authorities in energy solutions, whether for heating, lighting or regulation and intelligent energy management systems. And in the longer term, local authorities must implement a real energy management policy to achieve the 40% reduction in GHG emissions set by Europe. For a municipality, this also means making energy savings in its building and vehicle fleets. Internal teams will have to take charge of the energy issue.
To go further, solutions are already available to reduce their energy bill and impact, and new jobs dedicated to energy could also soon be created within communities.
Energy crisis and extended business support: between good news and long-term risk
The amount of aid and the ceilings it can reach (raised to 4, 50 and 150 million euros) vary according to the company’s situation.
The companies concerned are large energy consumers that have experienced an increase in the cost of supplying natural gas, electricity, heat or cold produced from natural gas or electricity between March 2022 and December 2023 and whose activity is particularly affected. In concrete terms, their energy expenses must be equivalent to at least 3% of their turnover in 2021, and their bill must have risen by more than 50% compared to that year.
Why is help with soaring prices important for companies?
Businesses are paying for the surge in energy prices between July and October 2022, the period during which professionals were renegotiating their annual contracts with their suppliers. From January onwards, businesses will have to face heavy increases in their bills and in this context, the aid granted to businesses is essential and its extension until December 2023 is good news.
Electricity prices on the spot market are much lower than those we experienced at the end of 2022, while paradoxically, companies find themselves at the beginning of the year with a much higher bill that does not reflect the current price of energy. This situation penalizes the companies by increasing considerably their operating expenses and posing for some a risk of deficit and worse for some.
A situation that can be avoided.
Without the aid and the progressive rebalancing of our production capacities, many industries would have closed or relocated to avoid the galloping inflation of energy prices in France. The measures announced by the state are therefore decisive in the management of this crisis and to ensure the maintenance of many activities on our territory.
Is this aid sufficient and fair?
Nevertheless, it is possible that the conditions for obtaining this aid will exclude a large number of companies which, due to the threshold effect, risk losing a lot of money. The question of company size creates a sometimes unfair system for benefiting from a regulated tariff, which makes it possible to allocate aid unfairly, even though the energy needs and expenses are the same.
Shouldn’t these subsidies eventually disappear?
The fact that the aids are not automatic and that there are steps to follow and conditions of attribution remains realistic because it is fundamental that everyone becomes aware of the cost of energy. As we have seen, when we make an effort and companies and individuals work together, it is possible to generate energy savings. According to RTE, our collective efforts have paid off in the last months of 2022 (about 9% savings in a few weeks) and this, without making investments, only by changing our uses. What is regrettable is that once again we had to react to the financial risk and not to the common good and environmental issues.
Nevertheless the permanent aids are a risk that could create bad habits. Energy has a cost but above all an impact on the environment and it is on this level that we must change our habits. We have to get used to having to pay higher energy prices and, in the end, the subsidies will have to give way to investments turned towards less polluting uses and quickly less subsidize CO2 emitting energies which have an economic blow and an ecological impact which is no longer acceptable.
EFICIA is now referenced in the UGAP multi-publisher catalog!
EFICIA is now referenced via SCC by the UGAP and its building energy management solution is available in the UGAP multi-publisher catalog.
This referencing is a new step in EFICIA’s development strategy and its ambitions to continue its expansion and increase its network of partners.
What is UGAP?
UGAP is a public industrial and commercial establishment (EPIC) placed under the supervision of two ministries (Economy and National Education). UGAP is a French public purchasing center and is the main organization to perform this function.
Because of its status as a central purchasing agency and because it operates on a purchase-for-resale basis, UGAP allows its contract holders to address the entire public procurement market through the signature of a single contract and to benefit from a reduction in their administrative, commercial and financial costs.
Why go through UGAP for a public contract
Going through the central purchasing office allows you to benefit from certain advantages:
Simplification of public procurement: UGAP takes care of the execution of orders and the relationship with suppliers, thus reducing the costs of procedures, deployment and management.
Legal security: the regulations relating to public procurement are respected
An immediate purchase: the public purchaser is exempt from advertising and competitive bidding procedures, regardless of the amount of the purchase
Contracts are notified
The central purchasing office provides a tool for making estimates and orders, and for tracking them online
Why is EFICIA referenced with UGAP?
The listing in the UGAP directory is above all a mark of confidence, and above all makes energy management services accessible to local authorities.
The UGAP allows actors like EFICIA to access the entire public order via a portal and through the signing of a single contract and to benefit from a reduction in their administrative, commercial and financial costs.
20% of point of sale energy consumption is avoidable
Every day, the news highlights the importance of energy in the daily lives of the French. Whether individuals or companies, everyone has a role to play in reducing their energy consumption.
In this environmental and economic context, and a few days before World Environment Day, the experts at Eficia, a global and innovative French Tech that supports companies wishing to reduce their ecological impact, note that :
On average, retail outlets could save 20% of their energy consumption.
Alric Marc, founder and president of Eficia, comments on this figure: “For a 5,000m² point of sale that consumes an average of 500 Mwh per year, this represents an annual saving of about 100 Mwh per year, or €15,000 (at current rates).”
According to him, “these 20% potential savings could be obtained in particular by:
- Ensuring that equipment does not consume energy unnecessarily during periods of unoccupancy
- Optimizing the operation of equipment during periods of occupancy (time scenario, temperature set point, etc.)
- By using the building’s inertia permanently
- By programming the scenarios according to the weather forecast.”
It is essential today to analyze in detail the typical energy consumption of an average retail outlet and to implement best practices that can be easily deployed today for a more virtuous and less expensive consumption.