By Alba del Campo, journalist and energy consultant
Sitges (Barcelona), September 2022
This week we were in Sitges, one of the seven Spanish municipalities selected in the first call for proposals from the EPAH (Energy Poverty Advisory Hub). Over the next 9 months, the Sitges City Council will receive technical assistance from the ECODES Foundation to study energy poverty at the local level and develop a roadmap to address it. At Ecoserveis, we will be responsible for monitoring the seven technical assistance projects.
It has been two days of intense dialogue and learning. We began with a guided tour of the different neighborhoods, accompanied by municipal staff from Social Affairs and Urban Services. The goal: to assess the condition of the buildings and learn about their perceptions of how energy poverty affects Sitges. During the tour, we also visited the areas surrounding the buildings where the city has planned to install solar panels to generate energy that will be used by municipal facilities, with a portion set aside for residents and for people experiencing energy poverty.
After touring the city, we conducted several interviews with policymakers and technical staff from the departments of Urban Planning, Housing, and Social Affairs, who explained to us the types of existing buildings, the ownership structure, the number of vacation rentals, existing rental assistance and social housing programs, ongoing projects, and more. We also met with the Urban Services specialist in charge of the future energy office.
The following day, a training session was held for municipal Social Services employees on energy poverty, during which the causes, consequences, and some measures to reduce it were explained. The workshop also included an analysis of electricity bills, how to optimize them, and measures for saving energy at home—measures that are more necessary than ever, given current energy prices.
There are 9 months ahead during which the technical assistance team will conduct a quantitative and qualitative analysis of the phenomenon of energy poverty in Sitges, for which it will interview individuals and organizations that are directly affected by this problem. At Ecoserveis, as the organization responsible for the EPAH in Spain, we will be supporting and overseeing the technical assistance projects that are now beginning so that local governments and citizens can make the most of them.
EPAH Manuals: Guidelines for Addressing Energy Poverty at the Local Level
The Energy Poverty Advisory Hub is an EU initiative carried out by the European Commission. This document was prepared as part of the H2020 EPAH project (European Commission). However, it reflects only the views of the authors, and the European Commission is not responsible for any use that may be made of the information contained herein.
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