Energy Saving Notification Obligation

What is the Energy Saving Notification Obligation?

Does a business location within your organisation in the Netherlands use 50,000 kWh of electricity or 25,000 m³ of natural gas (or an equivalent) or more per year? If yes, the Energy Saving Obligation applies to your location. On the location you will have to take every energy saving measure with a payback period of five years or less.

When the energy saving obligation applies, it is also obligatory to report every 4 years the executed energy saving measures to your competent authority. This is it energy saving notification obligation. The most recent deadline for submitting this report was 1 December 2023. Have you not filed your report yet? Do so as soon as possible.

Does a business location within your organisation in the Netherlands use 10,000,000 kWh of electricity or 25,000 m³ of natural gas (or an equivalent) or more per year? Then it is possible you need to expand your report with the Energy Saving Investigation Obligation for your activities.

Quickly determine whether the Energy Saving Obligation and the underlying Energy Saving Notification Obligation and Energy Saving Investigation Obligation apply to your organisation using the step-by-step plan (in Dutch).

How do you meet your Energy Saving Notification Obligation?

If the Energy Saving Notification Obligation applies to locations of your organisation, you have to report which energy saving measures you have taken in the digital eLoket portal of the Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO).

As a point of departure, you use the Recognised Energy Saving Measures Lists (in Dutch, Erkende maatregelenlijst energiebesparing, or EML). These lists contain energy saving measures which have a payback period of 5 years or less. There are three EML lists: buildings, facilities and processes. Each list contains a set of categories of measures. Examples of these categories are room lighting (buildings list), compressed air (facilities list) and process heating (processes list). For the facilities and processes list only the categories that are applicable to your business activities are relevant for meeting your energy saving and Energy Saving Notification Obligations.

Step-by-step

1. Use step-by-step plan (in Dutch) to check whether or not you must meet the Energy Saving Notification Obligation for your organisation.
2. Check the Recognised Energy Saving Measures Lists (EML) to determine which measure categories and measures are relevant to your business activities.
3. Purchase a Level 2+ Identity token (eHerkenningsmiddel level 2+) to be able to log into eLoket. Applying for a token will take five business days. Keep this in mind when preparing for your notification obligation.
   1. Logging in to eLoket is also possible using DigiD for private persons.
   2. Are you a foreign company that is unable to acquire a token? An intermediary company can be hired to submit your report.

How to report

You report the energy saving measures you have taken in eLoket. Make sure you are well-prepared and make use of the available tools listed below.

Do you have more than one location? A tool has been developed for reporting multiple locations in eLoket. This tool (XML upload) can be found on the eLoket page.

Who enforces the Energy Saving Notification Obligation?

The competent authority is responsible for the monitoring and enforcement of the Energy Saving Obligation, the Energy Saving Notification Obligation and the energy investigation obligation. In principle, this competent authority is the municipality in which your location is located. And in some cases, usually large and/or complex locations, the province is the competent authority. The competent authority has delegated these monitoring and enforcement tasks to an environment agency. As of 2023, the Energy Saving Obligation and underlying obligations are part of the standard work package of the environment agencies.

The competent authority or environment agency will retrieve your report from eLoket. They use the information to verify whether you have met the Energy Saving Obligation and the Energy Saving Notification Obligation.

In some cases, reports raise questions or environment agencies may want to conduct an inspection. If you do not report on time, the environment agency may take enforcement measures. This can have financial consequences in the form of a non-compliance penalty.

More information?

• Environment agencies in the Netherlands (in Dutch)
• Environmental Activities Decree (in Dutch)
• Environment Buildings Decree (in Dutch)

Contact us for more information.

Please note, there are several Dutch tools available (introductory videos, step-by-step plan and EML list).