Assessing building energy performance and energy policy impact through the combined analysis of EPC data – The Italian case study of SIAPE

Highlights: • Italian building energy performance assessment using the national EPC DBMS, SIAPE. • Evaluation of energy policy impact over time through EPC data combined analysis. • Relevance of the purpose for EPC issuing to monitor energy measure effectiveness. • The results are a support for decision makers to develop energy and sustainable plans. • This kind of analysis can harmonize the energy evaluations on EU buildings. Energy Performance Certificates (EPCs) and EPC digital registers are key tools to evaluate different aspects of the building stock and its energy consumption. This paper presents several detailed energy performance evaluations on the Italian buildings based on a sample of over 2,000,000 EPCs extracted from the national EPC register (SIAPE), contributing to the definition of an updated energy performance baseline of the Italian building stock. This is the first work using the Italian EPC register to define such a baseline to the extent of the authors' knowledge. Furthermore, combined analyses of EPC data were carried out to obtain information on the influence of the Italian energy regulations on building characteristics and on the effectiveness of energy strategy application for building renovation. This study underlines the relevance of EPC registers and how the combined analysis of EPC parameters can provide a large amount of useful information on several aspects of the building stock, allowing the monitoring of the impact of the Italian energy policy framework on buildings energy performance. Finally, based on these results, the paper supports public authorities and decision-makers in planning and developing future energy programs and identifying the best practices on the Italian territory.