Statement on the Net-Zero Industry Act

ESMIG, welcomes the proposal for a Net Zero Industry Act aiming at strengthening the competitiveness of net-zero technologies manufactured in the EU, and making the EU’s energy system more secure, resilient, and sustainable.

The Net-Zero Industry Act follows up on the recent EU Green Deal Industrial Plan, in better aligning the EU’s climate and energy and industrial policies. It recognises that the EU will not only win the global race to accelerate the green transition in setting ambitious targets towards a net-zero economy by mid-century, but also needs to strengthen its industrial and technological capacities to deliver the products and solutions needed to achieve the transition.

We are glad to see that that grid technologies have been included as a Net-Zero Strategic Technology. These Net-Zero Strategic Technologies will benefit from accelerated permit granting and better access to EU funding. Advanced meter infrastructure (AMI) and home energy management systems (HEMS), as specifically mentioned in the initiative, are key to enable demand-side flexibility, reduce and control the energy consumption.

Indeed, smart metering brings tangible energy savings, empowers consumers to better manage their energy, and enables the integration of a growing share of renewables, supporting the green energy transition and reducing the reliance on fossil fuels and energy imports.

The lack of smart meters, and therefore lack of consumer visibility on their consumption (currently only an average of 54% of household consumers are equipped with intelligent/smart meters) has been recognised by the Commission[1] as the first barrier in delivering flexibility, which is essential to save energy (reduce peak demand) and lower consumer bills.

The full deployment of smart meters must therefore remain a priority in Europe as a prerequisite for the development of smart electricity grids enabling demand side flexibility and the uptake of renewables.

 

[1] 1 Smart Grid Task Force Expert Group 3 report on Consumers’ Empowerment, December 2022 (page 7)

 

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