The Czech News Agency has written in The Prague Post about the challenges for the Czech Republic to meet some of its obligations under the EU’s Energy Efficiency Directive. It would be good to get examples from other member states.
Crucial data on state buildings is still missing from new registry
One-fifth of the total area of almost 500 state administrative buildings in the Czech Republic must be modernized by 2020 in harmony with an EU directive on energy efficiency, daily Hospodařské noviny (HN) writes.
The renovation works will mainly include roof and facade external insulations as well as replacement of old windows and boilers to save energy.
Under the energy-efficiency directive, the EU member states must annually renovate 3 percent of the floor area of state buildings in 2014-2020 to save their operational costs.
“The public sector should set an example in increasing energy efficiency to inspire other real estate owners,” Deputy Industry and Trade Minister Jiří Koliba told the paper.
The measures also apply to new construction projects. As of 2018, all public institutions will be allowed to build only low-energy houses, HN says.
According to the Industry and Trade Ministry, energy-saving renovations must be carried out in 498 buildings administered by 33 institutions, including all 14 ministries, the Government Office and the parliament as well as the ČNB central bank and the Czech Statistical Office.
The average age of the state real estate is 107 years. The overall floor area of the properties is about 1.9 million square meters, while most of them have over 500 square meters each, HN writes.
The Industry and Trade Ministry estimates the total costs of the buildings’ modernization at 1.5 billion Czech koruna.
The money for energy-saving adjustments to public buildings can be drawn from the Environment Operational Programme 2014-2020, which has 13.8 billion Czech koruna at its disposal, Koliba said.
Moreover, state institutions plan to sell their redundant buildings and spend the money from their sale on energy-efficient renovations, which an amendment to the law on state property should enable, HN notes.
It also writes that until recently the state had no idea of how many of its buildings must be renovated.
The new Central Register of Administrative Buildings (CRAB), run by the Office for Government Representation in Property Affairs, was to store data on the number of state buildings and their operational and maintenance costs.
However, the system has not been successful due to the offices’ unwillingness to provide the necessary data, especially those on power consumption that are crucial for setting the fulfillment of energy-efficiency criteria.
The register is therefore useless for the Industry and Trade Ministry’s purposes and its clerks are finding out the information about real estate themselves, HN adds.
Energy in Demand - Sustainable Energy - Rod Janssen 
I am impressed by the supportive statements being made by the Czech Minister. This politician genuinely seems to want to see publicly funded buildings improved in line with any relevant directive.
In contrast, here in the UK the senior buildings minister goes out of his way to encourage non-compliance with energy directives. When told that the European Commission will (eventually) take legal proceedings against him, the riposte is simply: “bring it on!”
Close to 10 years ago I was part of team that reviewed the Czech energy efficiency policies for the Energy Charter. Then, they had a very poor attitude towards energy efficiency. They have come a long way. I agree with you and am certainly impressed by the supportive statements. It is sad to see the “bring it on” attitude here in the UK. It’s wrong but I don’t know what it will take to change it.