Low income households are also its major victims of 2021-2022, according to its analysis, while also causing a domino of other negative effects. According to the JEP, the income of poor households, not only is not enough to meet energy needs, as it is directed towards other direct living needs (e.g. diet, housing, etc.), but also leads to the non-covering of other obligations (e.g. insurance, tax, banking etc.). The energy crisis of 2021-2022 was characterised by the sudden and particularly strong rise in energy prices and hit all countries in Europe. As a result, it led to significant impact on the economies of states and the burden on consumers, intensifying the phenomenon of energy poverty for households. From the analysis, it is clear that the proportion of households with an economic weakness for satisfactory heating in winter, which in 2022 amounted to 19.2% for all households, when in poor households this percentage reached 39.7%. In addition to the overall picture of the energy poverty of Greek households, especially the poor, at country level, analysis of the phenomenon also focuses on regional level. In all households, during the same period, the region with the highest rate of economic weakness for satisfactory heating in winter is Western Greece (30.3%) followed by the regions of Peloponnese and Attica, while in poor households the region of Western Greece reaches 58.9% followed by the regions of South Aegean, Central Greece, Western Macedonia, Attica and Central Macedonia. As regards the change in percentage over the period considered, 2018-2022, the biggest deterioration in all households is the regions of Attica and Central Macedonia, while in poor households the regions of Central Greece and South Aegean. For the period 2020-2021, when the energy crisis began, the households of the Ionian Islands region were significantly affected in winter heating capacity, when the indicator under consideration increased by 14.4 percentage points. However, in poor households, the regions where the situation deteriorated significantly are much more. The biggest impact was faced by households in Western Macedonia (26.9%) with subsequent regions of the South and North Aegean and Ionian Islands. Apart from the cost of energy and the level of income, which are the main factors affecting energy poverty, there are other parameters linked, both to the socio-economic characteristics of the household (size, source of income, gender, age, etc.), and to the characteristics of the house (surface, year of construction, type of house, energy shield, heating, etc.), but also geographical parameters related to the district (population density, climate conditions etc.). The JRC notes that the fact that the 2021-2022 energy crisis has been overcome and that energy prices have been destabilised and stabilised should not be a factor of complacency in terms of the risk of energy poverty among households. A typical example is the recent, sudden and sharp rise in the domestic wholesale price of electricity, within November 2024, as a result of the combination of various factors, conditions and events that prevailed both in the domestic and European energy markets. As the analysis points out, such events show how vulnerable our country’s energy sector is to international changes and it is understood that similar situations can often lead to an extraordinary burden of energy costs for households. Therefore, addressing the phenomenon of energy poverty should not be based solely on ephemeral measures to relieve vulnerable consumers, but it is necessary to shift public policies towards an integrated long-term strategy, which will be integrated into the green transition, in terms of social justice and consumer protection, and based on both social, environmental and energy policies. In this light, the JRC suggests that strategic targeting should focus on increasing the disposable income of households and on structural changes aimed at energy upgrading of the economy (including the country’s building stock) and strengthening and upgrading energy infrastructure (networks, interconnections, storage, etc.), as well as the energy behaviour of consumers (updating and education, tools for good management of consumption, savings, self-production RES, participation in energy cooperatives, etc.).
Poor households are the major victims of the energy crisis – What the KEPE proposes
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