One third of consumers in Romania are in energy poverty

The phenomenon of energy poverty in Romania deepened in the context of the pandemics and got to the situation where three out of ten households (33.3%) are in energy poverty, according to an analysis of the Romanian Observatory of Energy Poverty (ORSE).These consumers got to energy poverty after spending over 10% of the income for the payment of the energy bills in 2020, according to the most recent official statistics available.At the same time, almost two out of ten households (19%) suffer from what we call ‘hidden energy poverty” reducing the consumption due to small income, against 16% in the previous year.The analysis regarding the evolution of the energy poverty was made on the basis of the data covered in the Survey of Family Budgets (ABF) 2020, made by the National Institute for Statistics (INS).The roots of energy poverty are mainly in small income and weak energy efficiency of the buildings, as well a due to the lack of diversified access to accessible resources (especially in the rural environment, strongly dependent on wood). The improvement of the energy efficiency at the level of households and the increased use of renewable energy through targeted instruments are the main measures to contribute, on a medium and long term, to the slowing down od energy poverty in Romania.Most residences in the urban environment (74.5%) are multi-family, panel blocks built during the communist era and energy inefficient. Even if urban dwellings are mainly connected to the national gas network, and the heating is carried out either in a centralized system (especially in cities) or in individual gas boilers, the technical characteristics of multi-family homes (age, type of building material used, type of windows or other insulation) can increase household vulnerabilities through high energy consumption and/or through an unhealthy living environment (mold, infiltrations, etc.).In the rural environment, 80% of the households use wood for heating and have no access to other sources or forms of heating. The residences in the rural environment are built mostly from natural materials (wood, adobe 20% and more rarely brick).Moreover, treatment of energy poverty is not a clearly formulated objective in any governmental programme for thermal rehabilitation.In Romania, the most important method for approaching energy poverty is made up of social measures (heating aid) which are not sufficient and do not solve the causes, nor the symptoms of the phenomenon. At present, energy poverty is not an issue which involves deciding actors, say the representatives of the Observatory.The Romanian Observatory of Energy Poverty (ORSE) is a project initiated by the Centre for the Study of Democracy, think-tank set up in 2006 in the Department for Political Sciences, the Faculty for Political, Administrative and Communication Sciences, University ‘Babes-Bolyai’ in Cluj, where it functions as an accredited research centre.