Addressing Energy Poverty

Tasks

The Group’s task is to assist the Contracting Parties in addressing energy poverty in the most effective way. The Group serves as a platform for sharing best practices and supporting the identification of appropriate measures that can be implemented to address and reduce energy poverty in the long term. Specifically, tasks include:

• Identifying the needs of the Contracting Parties to effectively address energy poverty and developing tangible solution for Contracting Parties’ individual needs;
• Discussing local perspectives on energy poverty and possibilities to approach municipalities in the fight against energy poverty;
• Share and discuss best practices, lessons learned, and the way forward in developing and implementing new legislations and policies for reducing energy poverty and in collecting data on the causes and impacts of energy poverty.

Energy Poverty Coordination Group

2023 Work Programme of Energy Poverty Coordination Group

October 2024: Factsheets on status and policies and measures

The report includes Contracting Party-specific factsheets, which serve as a tool to track and compare the implementation status of energy poverty legislation, policies, measures, and data availability.

The factsheets comprise six sections. The first section tracks the status of energy poverty recognition, including whether there is a legal definition of energy poverty or vulnerable customers, national targets to reduce the number of energy-poor households, the legal and institutional framework in place, and the availability of a database registering energy-poor or vulnerable customers.

Based on the Energy Communities Energy Poverty Guidelines, the second section monitors the availability of therein listed short-term and long-term energy poverty policies and measures. This is followed by a table detailing the available energy poverty policies and measures, including brief explanations, the number of households covered, and the expenditure for each policy and measure, if available. Next, the factsheets summarize how energy poverty has been addressed in the Contracting Parties’ National Energy and Climate Plans (NECPs) and provide an overview of the NECP recommendations by the Energy Community Secretariat.

The last two sections include a list of publications and useful links on the topic, as well as data visualization. 
 

July 2023: Report on protection of vulnerable households in the Western Balkans

The report analyses how the Western Balkans Contracting Parties support the vulnerable and energy poor households during the energy crisis, particularly differentiating between the overall support for all households and the assistance to those in extreme need. In the framework of the EU Energy Support Package provided by the European Commission to the Western Balkans, it takes stock of the agreed-upon activities and those in the pipeline to assist in mitigating the immediate socio-economic impacts of the energy crisis.

The EU Energy Support Package in the Western Balkans is scheduled to be completed by December 2023. To quantify the effectiveness of the action, it will be necessary to analyse the data on disbursed funds and to benchmark the achieved targets against the set indicators. The Secretariat’s report draws preliminary conclusions and highlights the need to ensure market-based supply prices for households as well as adequate measures for protection of energy poor and vulnerable customers pursuant to the Energy Community legislation. The Western Balkans Contracting Parties are invited to apply both short- and long-term support measures to alleviate energy poverty, in order to relive the financial situation of poor households and stimulate energy savings at the same time.

August 2022: Policy Guidelines on identifying and addressing energy poverty

Published in August 2022, the Policy Guidelines on identifying and addressing Energy Poverty in the Energy Community Contracting Parties are designed with a view to assist the Energy Community Contracting Parties in supporting the most vulnerable categories of energy consumers.

The document provides guidance on:

• defining energy poverty indicators at national and local level,
• defining what constitutes a significant number of energy poor households in the Contracting Parties, and
• long- and short-term measures which could be used to address energy poverty, including those covered by the relevant sections of integrated National Energy and Climate Plans.

December 2021: Study on addressing energy poverty

The fact that energy poverty rates in the Energy Community are among the highest in Europe was a starting point of the study. This is due to historical economic and infrastructural factors, paired with social and energy sector reforms during the post-communist transition. Energy poverty was further worsened by the COVID-19 pandemic, leading to increased unemployment, reduced household incomes, and rising energy demand in the region – all factors contributing to energy poverty.

Poverty related workshops