German Energy Efficiency Act

The German Energy Efficiency Act (Energieeffizienzgesetz, EnEfG) entered into force on 18 November 2023 and transposes parts of the EU Energy Efficiency Directive (Directive (EU) 2023/1791, EED) into national law. It sets binding final energy consumption targets for Germany, efficiency obligations for the public sector, and separate sets of duties for companies, for data centres and for the avoidance and use of waste heat. For sustainability and compliance officers the EnEfG is therefore not a purely technical energy topic but regulatory law with its own evidence, publication and deadline logic, which has to be integrated into existing management system and reporting structures.

Corporate duties are triggered by the average annual total final energy consumption of the last three completed calendar years, aggregated across all energy carriers and all company sites – electricity, heat, fuels and vehicle fuels combined. Above 7.5 gigawatt hours per year, section 8 EnEfG requires the company to implement and operate an energy management system in line with DIN EN ISO 50001 or an environmental management system under the EMAS Regulation, within 20 months of first exceeding the threshold; for companies already above it when the act took effect, that deadline expired in July 2025. The act also prescribes minimum content, including the recording of energy flows, the identification of savings measures and an assessment of their economic viability. Above 2.5 gigawatt hours, section 9 EnEfG applies in addition: for the economically viable end-use energy savings measures identified in energy audits or in the management system, companies must prepare implementation plans, have them confirmed by certifiers, environmental verifiers or accredited energy auditors, and then make them publicly available – in practice on the company website.

The EnEfG sits alongside, rather than replaces, the energy audit obligation for non-SMEs under section 8 EDL-G: companies operating a certified energy or environmental management system are exempt from the audit, while those below the EnEfG thresholds remain on the four-year audit cycle. Supervision of the corporate duties lies with the Federal Office for Economic Affairs and Export Control (BAFA), which can request evidence and treat breaches as administrative offences; the reputational dimension matters too, since confirmed implementation plans are public. The underlying data overlaps heavily with ESRS E1, with greenhouse gas accounting under the GHG Protocol and with ISO 50001 energy performance indicators, which argues for a single shared data set. One caveat: the act is politically contested. Since 2025 amendments have been under discussion at federal level to reduce the burden on business and align the act more closely with the EED, including on thresholds and publication duties. Companies should track the legislative process and check their obligations against the version currently in force rather than relying on older timetables.