The effect of intervention strategies on the energy consumption of SMEs

Abstract

Recently, the environmental performance of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) has gained more interest. In the Dutch climate agreement, policies are proposed on energy saving measures for SMEs. These measures are subject to an intervention strategy which should provide maximum effectivity and minimal administrative burdens for both the companies and institutions, and competent authorities. This research tried to provide insights in the Dutch intervention strategy by answering the question what the effect is of enforcement and stimulation interventions on the energy consumption of SMEs in the Netherlands? This was done by doing a quantitative analysis based on a dataset provided by Energiepartners. Data from an enforcement project in Utrecht was compared to a stimulation project in the province of South-Holland on the parameters energy savings, amount of energy saving measures and completion of the data. The data showed positive results for both strategies, however the stimulation strategy had better results on all three parameters. Furthermore, it was shown through an extensive discussion that the results are not reliable. The most important conclusion from this research are that there is insufficient data available to be able to evaluate these intervention strategies. Therefore, this research suggests to investigate into ways to get a more complete and reliable dataset. Further research could also be done on a new pilot project by the environmental service of Flevoland, Gooi and Vechtstreek (OFGV). This project is a combination of both strategies and shows possibilities to obtain a more reliable and complete dataset.