Press Release: Electricity consumption growing in spite of efficiency drive says EU report

A report from the European Commission's in-house scientific service, the Joint Research Centre (JRC), indicates that overall electricity consumption is growing in the EU. Even if the EU and the Member States have adopted numerous successful measures to curb energy consumption and associated CO2 emissions, the electricity consumption in the residential sector of the EU-25 grew at a rate comparable to overall GDP (10.8 percent), effectively nullifying overall savings between 1999 and 2004. The report, Electricity Consumption and Efficiency Trends in the Enlarged European Union, highlights the key findings of an in-depth 2006 survey on electricity consumption in buildings in the enlarged EU, and the market share of energy-efficient appliances and equipment. It calculates future potential savings based on currently available technologies. According to the report, electricity consumption in the tertiary (service) sector increased by 15.8%, and industry consumption by 9.5%. The average consumption for a single household in the EU-25 was 4098 kWh in 2004. This could be reduced by 800 kWh per house per year, or about 20 % less electricity consumption in each household, if replacement of existing appliances and equipment and a full phase out of incandescent lighting were to be actively promoted in all EU Member States.