In accordance with the European Energy Services Directive, all EU member states were obliged to improve energy efficiency for companies and other market players. As a result, the German Energy Agency (dena) set up an information and communication platform in 2007, which, in addition to the central internet service "energieeffizienz-online.info", also included the "Energy Efficiency in Local Authorities" competition and the "Good Practice" seal of approval for energy efficiency projects. The IZT was commissioned to evaluate the platform against the background of changing legal framework conditions, technical possibilities and typical usage patterns on the Internet. The short study was completed in spring 2013.

In order to implement the European Energy Services Directive (EU ESD), the member states had to create the conditions for the development and promotion of a market for energy services and for the provision of other measures to improve energy efficiency for end consumers.

The German Energy Agency (dena) contributed to the implementation of the ESD with the "ESD Communication Platform" and "Energy Information Service" projects funded by the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology. The "EDL communication platform" project provided an information service for various market players on the internet platform www.energieeffizienz-online.info available. The website was supplemented by a database of energy-efficient products. Workshops and specialist events were organised as part of the project to improve cooperation between market players and representatives of public institutions in the national implementation of the ESD.

The evaluation of the dena project "EDL Communication Platform" and the associated internet platform was the subject of a short study carried out by the IZT - Institute for Futures Studies and Technology Assessment - on behalf of the Federal Centre for Energy Efficiency (BfEE) between October 2012 and March 2013. The evaluation was carried out with the aim of reviewing the previous approaches of this project against the background of changed framework conditions and changed technical possibilities since the start of the project, as well as changed usage patterns on the Internet. As part of the evaluation, the achievement of objectives, impact and cost-effectiveness of the measures were initially analysed in accordance with Section 7 of the Federal Budget Code. In addition, specific recommendations and suggestions were made as to whether and, if so, in what form the project content and the portal should be continued.

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