Industrial Energy Audit – The Impact of Current Regulations on Increasing Energy Efficiency in Romania

The European Union is implementing some of its most ambitious energy and environmental policies to become the first climate-neutral continent by 2050. Energy efficiency plays a key role in this initiative, being regulated by various legislative measures, including Directive 2012/27/EU. Gradually, Directive 2012/27 / EU has experienced several substantial changes, and for the sake of clarity, has been replaced by Directive 2023/1791/EU, which updates energy efficiency measures and sets the target of reducing energy consumption by 11.7% by 2030. The new directive also needs assistance for SMEs and sectors not subject to energy audit obligations. In the current state of the scientific literature, previous research looks at energy audits, management systems and the EE1 principle, but there is limited analysis on how recent legislative changes impact member states. The research methodology used in this paper examines the implementation of Directive 2012/27/EU in Romania, Germany and France, highlighting the difficulties encountered by Romania, which require a clearer transposition of Directive 2023/1791/EU and an advanced digitisation. The results suggest that around 20,000 new companies will have to apply energy efficiency measures, with a potential to reduce energy consumption of around 10%. These results underline the need for active involvement of authorities and effective support policies to enhance the implementation of energy efficiency measures at national level.