Tackling Energy Poverty through Collective Advisory Assemblies and Electricity and Comfort Monitoring Campaigns

Joana Ortiz, Mariana Jiménez Martínez, Alba Alegría-Sala, Sergio Tirado-Herrero, Irene González Pijuan, Mònica Guiteras Blaya and Lluc Canals Casals
Additional contact information
Joana Ortiz: Thermal Energy and Building Performance Group, Catalonia Institute for Energy Research (IREC), Jardins de les Dones de Negre 1, 2a, 08930 Sant Adrià de Besòs, Spain
Mariana Jiménez Martínez: Energy Systems Analytics Group, Catalonia Institute for Energy Research (IREC), Jardins de les Dones de Negre 1, 2a, 08930 Sant Adrià de Besòs, Spain
Alba Alegría-Sala: Project and Construction Engineering Department, Polytechnic University of Catalonia, Avda. Diagonal 647, 08028 Barcelona, Spain
Sergio Tirado-Herrero: Institute of Environmental Science and Technology (ICTA), Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), 08193 Cerdanyola del Vallès, Spain
Irene González Pijuan: Enginyeria Sense Fronteres, Carrer Múrcia 24 Baixos, 08027 Barcelona, Spain
Mònica Guiteras Blaya: Enginyeria Sense Fronteres, Carrer Múrcia 24 Baixos, 08027 Barcelona, Spain
Lluc Canals Casals: Energy Systems Analytics Group, Catalonia Institute for Energy Research (IREC), Jardins de les Dones de Negre 1, 2a, 08930 Sant Adrià de Besòs, Spain

Sustainability, 2021, vol. 13, issue 17, 1-28

Abstract: The present work aims to describe and analyze the results of the interventions carried out in the Barcelona pilot site of the EmpowerMed project. The overall objective of EmpowerMed is to tackle energy poverty and to help improve the health of people in coastal areas of Mediterranean countries, with a particular focus on women. The main support approach implemented in Barcelona is Collective Advisory Assemblies (CAA), in the framework of Alliance against Energy Poverty. CAA is an innovative, collaborative empowering engagement tool that offers an alternative to the more traditional one-off individual household advice and support approaches. CAAs take place together with a monitoring campaign where: electricity consumption is analyzed to optimize the supply contracts, and indoor environmental comfort to provide recommendations for wellbeing improvement. Through the different approaches, a characterization of the people that have participated in the Barcelona pilot site was completed, from a socioeconomic, energy, thermal comfort and air quality perspective. Additionally, it was compared with a group of energy poverty non-affected households, which are involved in the monitoring campaign. Finally, the impact was quantified in terms of empowerment of energy poverty population and, potential economic savings.

Keywords: energy poverty; collective advisory assembly; smart meters; thermal comfort; air quality; gender (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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