Energy audits and the new thresholds

The recast EU Energy Efficiency Directive of 2023 changes the test for when a company must carry out an energy audit or have an energy management system. Whether you are an SME or a large enterprise no longer matters; what matters is how much you consume. Romania had to transpose the directive by 11 October 2025 and, at the time of writing, has not done so. That leaves factories in a period where the old law still applies and the new one is already visible on the horizon.

What the directive requires

Article 11 of Directive (EU) 2023/1791 sets two thresholds, both calculated on average annual energy consumption over the previous three years, all energy carriers together:

• Above 85 TJ a year (about 23.6 GWh): the enterprise must have an energy management system, certified by an independent body under relevant European or international standards, by 11 October 2027 at the latest.
• Above 10 TJ a year (about 2.78 GWh) and without an energy management system: the enterprise must carry out an energy audit, the first by 11 October 2026, then at least every four years.

The audit no longer ends with the report. The company must draw up a concrete action plan based on the recommendations, with measures for each recommendation where technically or economically feasible, and present it to management. The action plan and the implementation rate of the recommendations must be published in the company’s annual report, with the protection of trade secrets provided by law. In addition, companies that exceed the thresholds in a given year must report this to the national authorities.

Annex VI sets the minimum criteria for the audit: measured, up-to-date and traceable consumption data, with a load profile for electricity; a detailed analysis of consumption by building, process and installation, including transport; identification of renewable energy potential; and life-cycle cost analysis, wherever possible, instead of a simple payback period. The data must be kept for later comparisons.

The directive exempts from both obligations companies with a certified environmental management system that includes an audit meeting Annex VI, as well as those with an energy performance contract covering the elements of an energy management system.

What applies in Romania today

Until transposition, the obligations come from Law 121/2014 on energy efficiency, as amended. In short, according to the consolidated version of October 2024:

• Economic operators consuming more than 1,000 toe a year carry out an energy audit covering their whole consumption perimeter every four years, draw up energy efficiency improvement programmes, appoint a certified energy manager (or sign an energy management contract) and submit every year, by 30 June, the consumption declaration and the energy analysis questionnaire.
• Operators below 1,000 toe a year, other than SMEs, carry out an audit every four years and submit the annual consumption declaration.
• Companies that are not SMEs and hold an energy management system certified to SR EN ISO 50001 (or an environmental one, ISO 14001) are exempt from the four-yearly audit if they show that the certification was based on an energy audit carried out in line with the law.

The 1,000 toe threshold equals about 41.9 TJ. The gap between the law and the directive is large at both ends: an SME factory consuming between 10 and 41.9 TJ has no audit obligation today but will have one after transposition. A large factory consuming more than 85 TJ and currently auditing every four years will have to move to a certified management system.

Where transposition stands

In November 2025, the European Commission sent letters of formal notice to the Member States that had not fully transposed the directive. In the infringement package of 4 June 2026, the Commission sent Romania a reasoned opinion (case INFR(2025)0358) and noted that Romania had not yet notified any transposition measure. The package of 1 October 2026 no longer mentions Romania under this directive, but does not announce closure of the case either.

At the date of this article, the official sources show no adopted and published legal act amending Law 121/2014 to take over the 10 TJ and 85 TJ thresholds. Several questions remain open that only the national text will settle:

• How consumption is calculated: at company level, as the directive says, or per geographically separate site, as the current law does for the 1,000 toe threshold.
• What deadlines Romania will set, given that the directive’s deadline for the first audit, 11 October 2026, has already passed.
• Who will authorise the auditors, and who will receive the action plans and the consumption data.
• How the action plan will be published by companies that have no obligation to produce a detailed annual report.

As a general rule in EU law, a directive that has not been transposed does not directly create obligations for private companies. That is no reason to wait: a certified ISO 50001 system cannot be put in place in a few weeks, and auditors will be busy once the national deadlines appear.

Where your factory stands

The calculation is simple and you can do it in an afternoon from your invoices:

• Add up annual consumption for each carrier: electricity, natural gas, diesel and petrol (including the vehicle fleet and forklifts), LPG, purchased steam or hot water, other fuels.
• Convert everything to the same unit. 1 TJ is about 277.8 MWh. Gas invoices in Romania are in kWh, so they add directly to electricity. For liquid fuels, use the calorific value from the supplier’s datasheet.
• Take the average over the last three calendar years.

If you come out at 9 or 11 TJ, you are close to the threshold and it is worth knowing exactly what counts (for example, whether energy produced by your own panels and consumed on site is included). The national text will decide that. If you are at 70-80 TJ and growing, plan now as for the 85 TJ threshold.

ISO 50001 as a route

For large consumers, the directive requires an energy management system. The standard used in practice is ISO 50001. The difference from an audit is that an audit is a snapshot every four years, while the system obliges you to run a continuous cycle: energy review, significant energy users identified, energy performance indicators with a baseline, objectives, actions, verification and management review.

If you already have ISO 9001 or ISO 14001, the documentation structure is familiar. The hard part is usually measurement: without submetering on the large consumers (compressors, furnaces, refrigeration, HVAC, production lines) you cannot build credible indicators. The budget for meters and data collection is the first thing to plan.

What to get from an audit

An audit done only for the file costs the same as a good one and leaves nothing behind. A few things you can ask the auditor for from the start:

• Recommendations with estimated savings in kWh and in RON, the investment, and a life-cycle cost analysis, not just payback. Annex VI asks for this anyway wherever possible.
• The raw data and the calculations, in a format you can reuse at the next audit.
• A measurement plan: which meters are missing and where.
• Organisational measures (settings, operating schedules, shutdowns) separated from those needing investment.

After the audit, turn the recommendations into an action list with an owner and a deadline, reviewed monthly along with the plant’s other indicators. The action plan that the directive will make mandatory is exactly this list.

For questions and experiences with auditors, the discussion continues in the WhatsApp group “Energy & Utilities”.