‘Good Energy’: Energy Poverty Can Be Solved Through Synergy at Local and National Levels

The inability of households and individuals to afford basic energy services, such as heating, cooling, cooking, washing, and lighting, or energy poverty, is a topic that marked the second day of the international conference ‘Good Energy’ on the island of Vis, organized by the Green Energy Cooperative (ZEZ).

Slavica Robić from the Society for Sustainable Development Design (DOOR) emphasized that transition countries are particularly affected by energy poverty. Energy-poor individuals mostly come from vulnerable groups and live in inadequate housing. Regarding Croatian public policy related to energy poverty, there are no programs specifically aimed at energy-poor households.

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– Recommendations for reducing energy poverty include creating a priority list for energy renovation and various levels of investment in energy efficiency in households, establishing an energy consulting system and providing simple energy efficiency measures, interest-free loans, renovation of the social housing fund, replacing household appliances ‘old for new’, setting limits on direct financial assistance, and campaigns for energy literacy, Robić highlighted.

Barbara Kalker, a representative of Caritas from Germany, presented Stromspar-Check – a national program of energy advisors to combat energy poverty in Germany, which operates at the level of over 150 cities.

Mark Braham, a representative of Robin Hood Energy, a municipal energy supply company, a non-profit organization owned by the city of Nottingham that supplies electricity and cares for socially vulnerable households.

– Our tariffs are consistent and among the most competitive in the market, and since our establishment in early 2016, we have gained an average of 2000 customers per week and have become an employer providing 200 jobs in Nottingham – emphasized Braham.

Mark Braham

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That there are solutions in the fight against energy poverty is demonstrated by examples from Križevci, Velika Gorica, and Slovenia.

Ljiljana Stojsavljević-Križan from the City Administration of Križevci presented their pilot project ‘Energy Advisors for Energy-Poor Households’, within which 13 energy advisors identified energy-poor households, visited 508 properties, and achieved the goals – improving the energy efficiency of energy-poor households, further educating unemployed individuals, creating green jobs, thus achieving an annual monetary saving per household of 531.68 kuna.

– The problem of energy poverty can be solved through synergy at local and national levels, emphasized Stojsavljević-Križan.

A bright example is the program to prevent energy poverty in the area of the City of Velika Gorica and the project from Slovenia presented by Tomislav Tkalec from Focus, a small environmental NGO, within which energy advisors visited two Slovenian regions, achieving savings of 84 euros per household per year.