Abstract
In many European countries, energy poverty is measured on the basis of real energy bills, as theoretical energy costs are hard to calculate. The UK is an exception—the data inputs for the Low Income-High Cost (LIHC) indicator are based on reasonable energy costs, these data are collected through specially designed surveys, often an intensive and costly procedure. Approaches which calculate energy needs are valid when energy bill data are unreliable or where households restrict consumption. In this analysis, energy poverty levels are evaluated for Greece, the municipality of Évora (Portugal), and the Basque Country (Spain): energy bills are modeled based on building energy performance data and other energy uses, and adjusted according to socio-demographic variables. To this end, equivalization weights are calculated using socio-economic data from the aforementioned southern European countries/regions. Data are analyzed to compare measurements with actual versus modeled bills using the Ten-Percent Rule (TPR) and Hidden Energy Poverty (HEP) against twice the median (2M) indicator, enhancing the identification of households with low energy consumption. In conclusion, theoretical energy needs can be combined with socio-demographic data instead of actual energy bills to measure energy poverty in a simplified way, avoiding the problem of targeting households that under consume.
Highlights
Between 54 and 141 million people are unable to keep their homes adequately warm in Europe; these citizens are considered to be in energy poverty [1]
As Pearson is used for linear correlations, and the econometric analysis will be linear for the logarithms of consumption, the test was performed for the logarithm of the actual energy expenses
A positive correlation was obtained for two variables, occupancy and size (m2); the energy consumption increases as dwelling size increases and as the number of household members increases
Summary
Between 54 and 141 million people are unable to keep their homes adequately warm in Europe; these citizens are considered to be in energy poverty [1]. Day et al [2] define energy poverty as “insufficient access to affordable, reliable and safe energy services”. The second of eight legislative acts approved in 2019 was the European Parliament legislative resolution of 13 November 2018 on the proposal for a directive of the European Parliament and of the Council amending Directive 2012/27/EU on energy efficiency, which states that “the Union’s energy efficiency policies should be inclusive and should ensure accessibility to energy efficiency measures for consumers affected by energy poverty”. One of its tasks is to define useful indicators to track the energy poverty situation across Europe. The common indicators proposed by the EPOV are [3]:
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