ENPOR updates its report on energy poverty in the private rented sector

The ENPOR Project has updated its overview of academic and grey literature and suggested resultant framework of measures to tackle energy poverty in the Private Rented Sector (PRS). This report establishes the state-of-the-art in knowledge of PRS-specific energy poverty challenges. Since the first overview was published in 2020, the effects of COVID-19 on energy poverty have been better understood, however, this update comes in the midst of the energy crisis, exacerbated by the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, of which the overall social impacts are unclear.

Energy poverty has gained increasing attention in the German public with the energy crisis. Despite the exploding energy prices, the Federal Government hasn’t acknowledged it so far to be a distinct issue from general poverty, addressing it with the financial instruments of the welfare state (e.g., transfer payments).

In addition, it provides financial support to non-governmental organisations to offer energy saving advice to low-income households. The most prominent initiative is the “StromSparCheck” (Electricity Saving Check) project, run by Caritas, in cooperation with the Federal Association of Energy and Climate Protection Agencies in Germany. In this programme, long-term unemployed citizens are trained to provide energy saving advice and low-cost technical devices free of charge to welfare recipients and low-income households.

We partnered with Caritas Düsseldorf to further develop innovative approaches to be able to convey energy advice more effectively or to increase heat savings and achieve better comfort levels by means of new tools and approaches. These approaches are tested and evaluated on an ongoing basis. 

Rising energy prices make it difficult to stay in control of the energy bill. Especially for people in a poorly insulated home, with a high energy bill and/or a lower income. Municipalities have been trying to support people who struggle with paying their energy bills. In the context of the Horizon 2020 projects EnergyMeasures and ENPOR, Dutch partners organised a meeting focusing on municipal approaches to decrease energy poverty. Roughly 80 participants worked on recommendations for a municipal approach 2.0 in 10 parallel sessions.

The parallel sessions included approaches with Energiebox in various municipalities, energy vouchers in Zeist, participatory action research in Soest, activities in the Eindhoven metropolitan area, approaches aimed at insulating one's own home in Deventer, actions by property owners to work together with tenants, and approaching people through the food bank in Utrecht. Lessons from debt counseling and behavioral psychology were included. 

The ENPOR partner Austrian Energy Agency developed materials to increase energy efficient heating and cooling lifestyle focusing on visual language. Designed to get to hard-to-reach target groups, the feedback from households so far has been very positive and thus confirms the effect of the newly developed formats.

The materials are now freely available in German, English, Turkish, Bosnian-Croatian-Serbian, Farsi and Arabic and can be downloaded from:

Online | Everywhere | 20-24 February 2023 | Time varies per day | Registrations open

 The International Energy Poverty Action Week (IEPAW) returns in February 2023 for its second edition to highlight solutions and actions to combat energy poverty worldwide. IEPAW aims to bring together policymakers, practitioners and experts from around the world for a series of discussions, workshops and actions to highlight the urgent need to find solutions to energy poverty amid the global climate crisis.

Why is it more critical than ever to be able to afford clean, sustainable and renewable energy? Does fuel poverty cause higher death rates? What can we do together to ensure that renewable energy is available to all without high costs? These are only some of the questions to be highlighted on the road to access to affordable, sustainable and clean energy on every continent:

The capacity building seminars target stakeholders of actions and measures connected to energy poverty mitigation. We will organise thematic capacity building seminars on the following topics:

• The Split Incentive: Supporting building owners  and energy poor tenants
• Energy efficiency advisory services for the rental sector
• How to reach (energy poor) tenants?
• Connecting energy poor communities
• How to facilitate agreements between landlords and tenants

These events will take place in 2023. Are you interested to receive detailed information on these events? Fill out this Expression of Interest Form to stay informed:

Online | 14 March 2023 | 10h00-13h00 CET | Registrations open

The European Energy Network developed a study on policy and the current status of energy poverty. The study focuses on the facilitating role of energy agencies as enabling agents in the context of renewable energy communities and combating energy poverty, the effectiveness of current policy measures including strategies for fair renewable energy access, and financing mechanisms considering special emergency measures due to Covid-19 and the war in Ukraine. Under the coordination of the Programs and Initiatives Department (DPI) at ADENE, the Portuguese Energy Agency, the study was developed together with six other agencies joining the study’s Steering Committee (ADEME, Agency for Ecological Transition, France; AEA, Austrian Energy Agency; CRES, Centre for Renewable Energy Sources and Saving, Greece; Dena, German Energy Agency; Energy Saving Trust, United Kingdom, RVO, Netherlands Enterprise Agency) and received contributions from a total of 14 agencies across Europe.

The Energy Poverty Advisory Hub (EPAH) has conducted the update on national indicators for energy poverty, resulting in a new dashboard available on the website. It offers a practical visualisation of energy poverty levels across Europe thanks to the most recent EU-wide statistics. This interactive database provides practical features to navigate through 21 national indicators. New disaggregated data increases the precision of the analysis and new functions allow comparisons of data between countries and years, as well as a country view with all indicators available.

POWERPOOR 's energy poverty alleviation support programmes are led by a trained and certified network of energy supporters and mentors that act as ‘local heroes’ facilitating behavioural change and the uptake of energy efficiency measures and renewable energy. 

More than 50 training sessions have been held in the 8 pilot countries with more than 1500 participants, more than 950 of which have been certified as energy supporters and mentors supporting households and municipalities across EU. Discover the locations of the POWEPROOR energy poverty alleviation offices and the of the certified energy supports and mentors. POWEPROOR project will also hold two EU inspiring events, follow their Twitter Facebook, and LinkedIn to find out more information.  

The new project RENOVERTY aims to address it through replicable and scalable renovation roadmaps

RENOVERTY will support around 115 households in getting adequate home renovations that will enhance their quality of life and also lower their energy bills. Furthermore, the project’s replication activities will indirectly impact around 1150 vulnerable households at the national level and in other regions that can implement relevant policies in the rural areas after the project lifetime.

RENOVERTY seeks to put rural energy poverty on the map by identifying key indicators to characterise the most at-risk populations, thereby enabling their targeted support, while alleviating rural vulnerability by fostering energy efficiency building upgrades in energy poor households through replicable and scalable renovation roadmaps.

Fuelwood has been overlooked by European energy transition policies, despite its importance as a domestic energy source for many European households. We study fuelwood use for coping with energy poverty based on the lived experience of energy-vulnerable households in five diverse European countries (Portugal, Slovakia, Hungary, Austria, and North Macedonia). From their perspective, fuelwood is a central and multifunctional tool for coping with energy poverty because of its many favorable features, including enabling energy security and access, that overweigh its adverse environmental and health impacts.

This recent research paper focuses on fuelwood as a central and multifunctional tool for coping with energy poverty.

ENPOR increases the capacity of the decision makers for understanding and mitigating its effects by designing and implementing ten policies. To bundle findings and outcomes of projects dealing with energy vulnerability and to support policies related to fair energy transition we seek to publish related interesting news and articles. We welcome articles and news from other projects and inititiatives, as well as by researchers or policy initiatives interested in distributing their results  in an easy-to-understand language.

This Newsletter reflects only the author’s view and CINEA is not responsible for any use that may be made of the information it contains. ENPOR has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 889385.