Periodic Reporting for period 2 - STEP-IN (Using Living Labs to roll out Sustainable Strategies for Energy Poor Individuals) Reporting period: 2019-09-01 to 2021-03-31 Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project Across Europe, the number of citizens living in energy poverty is a cause for significant concern and the number has increased because of the Covid-19 pandemic. Energy poverty leads to physical and mental health issues and social isolation. The principal aim of STEP-IN was to improve quality of life through reducing energy poverty. Reducing energy poverty is critical to lowering CO2 emissions as energy poor citizens are already under-consuming. Therefore, traditional energy efficiency measures will often result in rebound effects as people seek to improve their thermal comfort level. Sometimes, they have no energy supply, therefore connection to the grid will only lead to consumption. As a result, there is a need for advice, refurbishment and renewable programmes which specifically target energy poor citizens. In order to support the aim of improving quality of life for the citizens involved, STEP-IN also sought to share best practice, develop a living lab (LL) methodology, drive policy and work with the energy poverty community in order to provide a long-term sustainable impact. Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far STEP-IN started with an extensive level of background research to identify rates and factors related to energy poverty in the three living lab locations. These factors included housing quality and ownership, energy sources and social factors. This background work took the form of either drawing on pre-existing study data or data collected via a baseline survey. In addition to identifying issues the background research also assisted in the market segmentation aspects. STEP-IN developed and implemented living labs in three European countries (UK, Greece and Hungary). The methodology was adapted to local circumstances, and included home and remote visits, focus groups, ICT tools benchmarking and energy cafes. The consumers involved in the living labs received advice on a range of topics including bills, supplier switching, energy-saving behavioural changes, sources of further advice and support, energy and energy efficiency and refurbishment schemes (ranging from ‘small measures’ such as energy efficient lightbulbs, to larger measures such as insulation and new upgraded heating systems). They were also referred to other relevant programmes. As a result of the living labs, STEP-IN is estimated to have directly improved the quality of life of an estimated 1,085 people (564 households) in the UK, 860 people (190 households) in Greece, and 793 people (307 households) in Hungary. In total STEP-IN is estimated to have reached more than 13,000 people. Examples of benefits for citizens include reductions in energy bills (an average reduction of 8.47% in the UK across all three LL rounds) and in Greece estimated energy saving of 518,000 kWhth per year (6.2% saving average across all three LL rounds). In Hungary, modest overall consumption increases occurred although STEP-IN actions are estimated to have reduced consumption by an average of 5.3% across all three rounds. CO2 reductions are estimated at 114.5 tons per year in the mountainous LL. Subjective feedback from people assisted found that STEP-IN was beneficial and improved their quality of life. For example, in the UK the percentage of participating households who reported being unable to pay their bills on time reduced by more than half during the first and second iterations of the living labs. In Greece, more than 40% of the households who participated in the LL and were faced with arrears in energy bills said that STEP-IN helped them to avoid this problem. In Hungary 15.3 percent of the households felt improvement in arrears. There were huge differences between the target groups regarding this positive impact. More than 20 percent of the Roma and households with 3+ children reported improvement in arrears, but this number was close to zero in the case of single pensioners (most of them didn’t have arrears). In response to the Covid-19 pandemic, STEP-IN adapted its mainly face-to-face approach of assisting citizens to one which relied more on remote assistance. The pandemic had a negative impact on the citizens with many facing increased energy bills and lower incomes.An extensive dissemination campaign was undertaken including a project video and leaflets through to organising a conference, working group meetings and summer/winter schools. Despite Covid-19, the online participation at many events remained high. This was complemented by an active external network of interest and working groups. Six policy white papers were published, each one targeting a specific group. Over the longer- term, the training provided by STEP-IN will help to shape how energy advice is provided. Some dissemination highlights include the fact that the Greek advice leaflet has been disturbed to the 331 municipalities in Greece, 15 scientific publications as articles in journals, books/monographs and conference publications, as well as the creation of a multi-stakeholder Network of Interest involving 46 members acting as both external advisors/content providers to the project’s policy recommendations and as dissemination multipliers of the STEP-IN project experiences and results. Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far) STEP-IN has moved beyond the state-of-the-art in tackling energy poverty through the development, implementation and validation of its living lab methodology. The approach places an emphasis on developing a clear understanding of the locality and the energy poverty issues involved, alongside working with trusted local and national stakeholders. The flexible living lab approach of STEP-In coupled with its leveraging of existing stakeholder networks and schemes means that similar schemes can be operated in other localities across Europe. The work was further strengthened via our experiences and results obtained during the Covid-19 pandemic, making STEP-IN among the first to provide information on the impact of Covid-19 on energy poor citizens.From a socio-economic perspective, our results show that our current approach of asking for energy savings from all members of society is at best ethically dubious. Many energy poor citizens are already consuming significantly less energy than the average, and this can lead to health problems and even deaths. Therefore, our results and rebound effects analysis show that while STEP-IN actions improved efficiency and resulted in bill reductions, the citizens involved often preferred to improve comfort which in turn often raises net consumption. Given the living conditions of many people this is entirely rationale and fair. Our work on rebound effects and renewable and refurbishment schemes, clearly demonstrates that energy poor consumers are the ones who are most likely to benefit from such programmes as they have little choice but to increase consumption. They are therefore critical to reducing overall CO2 emissions. STEP-IN provided strong socio-economic and environmental benefits for the citizens involved e.g. reconnecting to the grid, supporting them with administrative energy issues, preventing disconnection, and arrear management. Other tangible benefits included: greater awareness of energy bills, efficiency issues and in some cases, they have benefited directly from relatively low-cost maintenance programmes which have lowered their energy consumption and costs. From an environmental perspective, the burning of rubbish also decreased in Hungary prior to the Covid-19 pandemic. energy-works-2-1.jpg
