Programme to reduce energy poverty in the Czech Republic
Introduction
Households are increasingly struggling with fluctuating energy prices and this is leading to instability and rising costs. Energy poverty is now being discussed more often in the Czech Republic. Nevertheless, unlike the most advanced Western European countries, the issue has not been tackled at a high enough level. The biggest shortcomings are the lack of definitions and detailed description of energy poverty as well as the lack of strategies aiming at decreasing the occurrence and impact of energy poverty on households. In addition, there is a lack of general awareness of the problem both among professionals and the overall population. Therefore, the first step should be to map out the situation and define particular tasks.
The European Parliament has adopted the EPBD II directive, which sets out basic principles and requirements leading towards a significant decrease in the energy consumption of buildings in the EU. The Czech Republic has to implement the EPBD II in its legislation and create a set of policy measures to achieve final energy consumption savings. Consequently, various support schemes have been introduced that should help households implement savings measures regarding energy losses in their buildings (DG ENER, 2014; Energy Management Act, 2000; EED, 2010).
Energy poverty takes two basic forms. The first is unavailability of energy sources, which primarily endangers households in less advanced countries. This form will probably not affect households in the Czech Republic, but Czech households will be endangered by energy poverty caused by a lack of available funding to cover the building's energy demand. In the last few decades, the level of comfort (and consequently energy consumption) in households has increased. The number of appliances has also risen and, generally, a higher quality standard is required than ever before (constant temperature, humidity and other air treatments). To satisfy all these requirements, it is necessary to pay higher energy costs (Anisimova, 2011).
It is therefore necessary to establish a definition of energy poverty for the Czech Republic or to adopt a definition used in other Member States that have been dealing with this issue for some time, such as UK (Sovacool, 2015).
Energy poor households are one of the areas where the objective to decrease the final energy demand can be attained. Nevertheless, it is necessary to choose a type of support that will be feasible in terms of the household's income. At the same time, the support must be effective for the shortest payback period possible and for decrease of energy demand. A programme focusing on energy poverty decrease should be based on the requirements of the affected households and should provide sufficient support aiming primarily at decreasing energy expenditures in households while preserving the level of comfort (NAPEE, 2016; Valentová and Honzík, 2011).
Households affected by energy poverty cannot invest in savings measures or spend most of their income on energy in order to keep their homes comfortably heated. Therefore, it is desirable to find assistance that would ensure a proper living standard and help decrease energy expenses. Most EU Member States (including the Czech Republic) have not set any anti-energy poverty strategies yet. It is therefore necessary to study and use the knowledge gained by other countries that have been dealing with the issue of energy poverty over a longer period (Waddams Price et al., 2012; Bouzarovski et al., 2012).
In order to set the right strategies and decrease energy poverty, this issue has to be precisely defined. As the Czech legislation, has not drawn up its own definition yet or adopted a definition from other countries, the definition of the European Commission is most often used. However, this definition is rather vague. Another option is to use the more accurate definition of Great Britain:
A household is in fuel poverty if, in order to maintain a satisfactory heating regime, it would be required to spend more than 10% of its income on all household fuel use (Moore, 2012; Defining Fuel Poverty, 2006).
The definition is clear and comprehensible and shows the exact energy poverty threshold. Yet, before this definition is adopted by other countries, it should be considered whether the definition and its parameters correspond to the parameters of the given country (e.g. the Czech Republic) and whether the definition is applicable there. Each country should consider local conditions and customs, particularly lifestyle and comfort requirements, when setting the definition of energy poverty.
Section snippets
Methods used
To resolve energy poverty issue, it is necessary to find suitable indicators which display the current state of the art. Household income and expenses, as well as the technical condition of dwellings need to be described. Energy poor households that need government support are detected based on statistics and a comparison of the current situation among the EU Member States. The chapter on methods used includes comparison of selected indicators of energy poverty (Section 2.1) as it is crucial to
Current situation in the Czech Republic
Programmes to tackle energy poverty in the Czech Republic are still underdeveloped, which accounts for the lack of information sources that would help determine the present situation in the country. As a consequence, we can only rely either on foreign analyses or statistical data.
Energy prices strongly influence household expenses. Rising energy prices may cause substantial problems to many households, which will not be able to handle the expenses despite their efforts to save as much energy as
Measures of a draft programme of for reducing energy poverty
The current situation of energy poverty in the Czech Republic has not been mapped out in detail yet. In addition, relevant information is missing and it is necessary to rely on statistical data that are not sufficiently interlinked. This situation results in distortion that strongly influences the final outcome. Therefore, it is desirable to define the exact targets of the programme and to determine the target households in particular. Despite the inaccurate data, it is possible to draw
Conclusion
The existing measures undertaken in the Czech Republic should contribute to reducing energy poverty, but the problem has received less attention than it deserves. According to model covering technological and economic part of the topic, the number of households under level of energy poverty is 16%, which is significant. As reaction there should be set up strategic goals in the field of energy poverty including national definition and the National strategy to tackle energy poverty in the
Acknowledgments
The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support for the research that led to this paper that was provided by the Czech Technical University and SEVEn, the Energy Efficiency Center.
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