Identifying Energy-Poor Households with Publicly Available Information: Promising Practices and Lessons Learned from the Athens Urban Area, Greece

Abstract

Energy poverty (EP) has emerged as a significant and multifaceted social challenge, both in Europe and globally, in recent years. Given the constraints of limited public resources, it is imperative that policies addressing EP focus on the most socially vulnerable households. To this end, effective policies necessitate a thorough understanding of the key characteristics defining households affected by this phenomenon. This research aims to contribute to the identification of energy-poor households by examining both established and novel EP indicators, utilizing the Athens urban area as a case study. The study employs the official EP indicator utilized in Greece, alongside three newly developed indicators. These indicators constitute essential components in the formulation of multivariate binary logistic regression models. The models incorporate predictors derived from existing government databases, encompassing household and building characteristics. From a policy perspective, this research introduces novel approaches for addressing EP, as the models and two of the newly introduced indicators demonstrate promising results in identifying energy-poor households. Importantly, this identification can be achieved without the need for primary questionnaire surveys or the compilation of complex information.