Programmes to mitigate energy poverty in Europe

Project partner

• ICCS Institute of Communication and Computer Systems (GR)
• IEECP Institute for European Energy and Climate Policy (NL)
• RAP Regulatory Assistance Project (Bl)
• ISPE Institutul de Studii si Proiectari Energetice SA (RO)
• CARITAS Österreich (AT)
• EDF Électricité de France (FR)
• NATURGY (ESP)
• PPC Public power generation (GR)
• CEZ Vanzare SA
• HEP ESCO (HR)
• Fortum Jelgava (LV)
• EViso SRL (IT)

Project description

Energy suppliers must take their responsibility towards their customers seriously. People who have difficulty paying their energy bills and/or heating/cooling their homes adequately are a cause of concern for companies. It must be in their interest not only to integrate the given problem in an adapted way into their operations, but also to find effective solutions to mitigate energy poverty within the framework of their energy efficiency obligations. In Article 7 of the Energy Efficiency Directive, the EU stipulates to the Member States that measures in this regard are to be regulated in national legislation.

SocialWatt should provide energy suppliers with appropriate tools to effectively interact with their customers and work together to mitigate energy poverty. In accordance with Article 7 of the Energy Efficiency Directive, the aim is to develop, adopt, test and disseminate innovative programmes to mitigate energy poverty with and for these companies. This will help energy suppliers to meet their energy efficiency obligations, improve public relations, promote corporate social responsibility strategies, reduce debt and overhead costs in debt management and improve their public image.

In this project, the role of e7 and Caritas Austria as experts stands out, as reference can be made to several national projects and a strong involvement of energy providers is given compared to other European countries.