Periodic Reporting for period 2 - ComAct (Community Tailored Actions for Energy Poverty Mitigation)
Reporting period: 2022-03-01 to 2024-02-29
Context
The countries in the Central and Eastern European (CEE) region and in the former Soviet Union republics (CIS region) have the most energy-poor people in Europe. This is mainly due to high energy prices and poor energy efficiency of the buildings,heating systems. Before the 1990, the collective housing dwellings in the CEE and CIS region were state-owned and managed. A process of mass privatisation in the housing sector in the 1990s led to today’s situation where multi-family apartment blocks in private ownership are predominant.
The privatisation also came with the deconstruction of the social safety net: without subsidies, utility and energy costs of the flats soared, burdening the family budgets. In parallel, the socialist-era collective maintenance mechanisms were abandoned, and the decay of homeowners’ associations has not been addressed effectively. Renovation of a multi-family building requires coordinated action among the apartment owners.
To address these issues, there is the need to develop a new approach in order to influence the energy costs substantially and make the energy efficiency interventions affordable,consequently reducing the high energy poverty level in this region.
Objectives
ComAct aims to make high-impact and high-cost energy-efficient improvements in multi-family apartment buildings in the CEE and CIS regions affordable and manageable for energy-poor communities as well as to create the necessary assistance conditions for lifting them out of energy poverty. ComAct wants to create a new understanding of energy poverty in the context of multi-family buildings in the CEE and CIS environment. To do so, ComAct will empower and organise communities of energy-poor homeowners with the most relevant local actors into an ‘eco-system’ that enables the energy efficient renovation of multifamily apartment buildings inhabited by energy-poor households.
The countries in the Central and Eastern European (CEE) region and in the former Soviet Union republics (CIS region) have the most energy-poor people in Europe. This is mainly due to high energy prices and poor energy efficiency of the buildings,heating systems. Before the 1990, the collective housing dwellings in the CEE and CIS region were state-owned and managed. A process of mass privatisation in the housing sector in the 1990s led to today’s situation where multi-family apartment blocks in private ownership are predominant.
The privatisation also came with the deconstruction of the social safety net: without subsidies, utility and energy costs of the flats soared, burdening the family budgets. In parallel, the socialist-era collective maintenance mechanisms were abandoned, and the decay of homeowners’ associations has not been addressed effectively. Renovation of a multi-family building requires coordinated action among the apartment owners.
To address these issues, there is the need to develop a new approach in order to influence the energy costs substantially and make the energy efficiency interventions affordable,consequently reducing the high energy poverty level in this region.
Objectives
ComAct aims to make high-impact and high-cost energy-efficient improvements in multi-family apartment buildings in the CEE and CIS regions affordable and manageable for energy-poor communities as well as to create the necessary assistance conditions for lifting them out of energy poverty. ComAct wants to create a new understanding of energy poverty in the context of multi-family buildings in the CEE and CIS environment. To do so, ComAct will empower and organise communities of energy-poor homeowners with the most relevant local actors into an ‘eco-system’ that enables the energy efficient renovation of multifamily apartment buildings inhabited by energy-poor households.
A compact overview of existing information about energy poverty in the pilot countries Hungary, Lithuania, Bulgaria, North Macedonia, and Ukraine was developed based on an extensive literature review and desk research. To attain a more nuanced and in-depth picture of energy poverty in the 5 ComAct pilot countries, these steps were taken: 1) the design and implementation of the survey in the five ComAct pilot countries, 2) the data analysis and 3) the publishing of the related deliverable ( Guidebook on the concept of energy poverty and its relevance in the five pilot countries) which presents the results.
Preparation of the Inventory of community activation and stakeholder engagement techniques with special attention to the geographical coverage of ComAct was done. The Stakeholder engagement and community involvement strategy document builds on the Inventory of community activation and stakeholder engagement techniques document which includes a detailed stakeholder mapping of the target groups in the project’s pilot countries. 4 Energy Advice resource Centers have been established in every pilot country, except in Hungary. Stakeholder’s Advisory Groups (SAGs) are established in each of the pilot countries.
Toolbox of financing models for energy-poor households was developed off- and on-line. The lessons learned were used to design innovative local financing schemes by the national partners with specific focus on tackling energy poverty issues. A document containing inventory of energy efficiency technical measures for energy-poor households has been created. About 30 different measures were elaborated. Additional document was created that presents educational material used for training of energy advisors in pilot countries. Additionally, in total around 175 persons have been trained.
The Implementation Action Plans of the 5 pilot projects was compiled. Implementation of pilot cases started in month 10 with organisation of the 1st Knowledge Exchange workshops in each pilot country. Additionally, educational materials for energy-poor households have been created as a compilation of short brochures/leaflets with main important information on ways to reduce energy-poverty. Knowledge Sharing e-learning platform was developed in Moodle serving as a ‘one-stop-shop’ for all information regarding the ComAct pilots, educational materials and all information related to energy poverty in multi apartment buildings.
Organization of second round of Knowledge exchange workshops happened in all 5 pilots in the autumn of 2023 with different important stakeholders. Sustainability for the pilots in the form of business plans for resource centers was created.
Three validation reports have been produced for the work done under WP2, WP3 and WP4 in stakeholder, financial and technical sphere. This was fed to the final policy recommendations coming form the project, presented at the final conference in the Committee of Regions with 170 attendees in person and online. In addition to the recommendations, three policy briefs were created on the topics of: energy poverty at building level, financing schemes and stakeholder engagement with policy recommendations for three levels: local, national and EU.
Final project summary was created with a focus on pilots and their achievements as well as lessons learnt. Final sustainability and exploitation plan was finalized.
In total, ComAct organized or took part of in over 130 events at EU and national level, which helped to reach an overall number of targeted stakeholders for the total project of over 857,300. Partners attended a total of 76 events, at national local or EU level. ComAct partners also took the opportunity to present the project at various renown events in the energy field, such as C4E Forum, Energy Poverty Advisory Hub Annual Conference, European Sustainable Energy Week, European Housing Forum, Covenant of Mayors Forum and more.
In total, ComAct got more than 95 mentions in different platforms and media outlets, coming from 12 different EU and international countries.
Preparation of the Inventory of community activation and stakeholder engagement techniques with special attention to the geographical coverage of ComAct was done. The Stakeholder engagement and community involvement strategy document builds on the Inventory of community activation and stakeholder engagement techniques document which includes a detailed stakeholder mapping of the target groups in the project’s pilot countries. 4 Energy Advice resource Centers have been established in every pilot country, except in Hungary. Stakeholder’s Advisory Groups (SAGs) are established in each of the pilot countries.
Toolbox of financing models for energy-poor households was developed off- and on-line. The lessons learned were used to design innovative local financing schemes by the national partners with specific focus on tackling energy poverty issues. A document containing inventory of energy efficiency technical measures for energy-poor households has been created. About 30 different measures were elaborated. Additional document was created that presents educational material used for training of energy advisors in pilot countries. Additionally, in total around 175 persons have been trained.
The Implementation Action Plans of the 5 pilot projects was compiled. Implementation of pilot cases started in month 10 with organisation of the 1st Knowledge Exchange workshops in each pilot country. Additionally, educational materials for energy-poor households have been created as a compilation of short brochures/leaflets with main important information on ways to reduce energy-poverty. Knowledge Sharing e-learning platform was developed in Moodle serving as a ‘one-stop-shop’ for all information regarding the ComAct pilots, educational materials and all information related to energy poverty in multi apartment buildings.
Organization of second round of Knowledge exchange workshops happened in all 5 pilots in the autumn of 2023 with different important stakeholders. Sustainability for the pilots in the form of business plans for resource centers was created.
Three validation reports have been produced for the work done under WP2, WP3 and WP4 in stakeholder, financial and technical sphere. This was fed to the final policy recommendations coming form the project, presented at the final conference in the Committee of Regions with 170 attendees in person and online. In addition to the recommendations, three policy briefs were created on the topics of: energy poverty at building level, financing schemes and stakeholder engagement with policy recommendations for three levels: local, national and EU.
Final project summary was created with a focus on pilots and their achievements as well as lessons learnt. Final sustainability and exploitation plan was finalized.
In total, ComAct organized or took part of in over 130 events at EU and national level, which helped to reach an overall number of targeted stakeholders for the total project of over 857,300. Partners attended a total of 76 events, at national local or EU level. ComAct partners also took the opportunity to present the project at various renown events in the energy field, such as C4E Forum, Energy Poverty Advisory Hub Annual Conference, European Sustainable Energy Week, European Housing Forum, Covenant of Mayors Forum and more.
In total, ComAct got more than 95 mentions in different platforms and media outlets, coming from 12 different EU and international countries.
ComAct advances the state of the art through creating the necessary support to enable affordable implementation of energy efficiency measures that lead to high-impacts with numerous benefits to energy-poor households. In doing so, it advances the current state of the art in following aspects:
a) Regarding the way how household energy poverty could be identified and handled on a multi-family building level instead of an individual household level;
b) The way of empowering stakeholders (communities of homeowners, local authorities, companies, financial institutions and civil society organizations, the so-called ‘Eco-system’), through the creation of the enabling environment for energy efficiency upgrades in multi-family apartment buildings (MFABs) focusing on low income homeowners;
c) In terms of financing instruments by adapting them for the needs of energy-poor households by taking into account the special needs of Homeowners’ Associations inhabited by low income residents, and last but not least,
d) ComAct contributes to the state of the art regarding gender dimension. Namely, so far there has been no investigation to explore current situation on the gender-energy-poverty nexus in MFABs while it is women in the
ComAct countries who have a higher risk not to meet basic energy needs for day-to-day living functions (cooking, heating, lighting.)
a) Regarding the way how household energy poverty could be identified and handled on a multi-family building level instead of an individual household level;
b) The way of empowering stakeholders (communities of homeowners, local authorities, companies, financial institutions and civil society organizations, the so-called ‘Eco-system’), through the creation of the enabling environment for energy efficiency upgrades in multi-family apartment buildings (MFABs) focusing on low income homeowners;
c) In terms of financing instruments by adapting them for the needs of energy-poor households by taking into account the special needs of Homeowners’ Associations inhabited by low income residents, and last but not least,
d) ComAct contributes to the state of the art regarding gender dimension. Namely, so far there has been no investigation to explore current situation on the gender-energy-poverty nexus in MFABs while it is women in the
ComAct countries who have a higher risk not to meet basic energy needs for day-to-day living functions (cooking, heating, lighting.)