ASSIST2gether Results Simone Maggiore – R.S.E.

Support Network for Household Energy Saving

ASSIST Webinar

28/04/2020

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WP5 OBJECTIVES

- Design, implement and evaluate innovative support services for

vulnerable consumers on a country based level with a market-

oriented and flexible approach;

- Perform a market segmentation of the vulnerable consumers;

- Design and develop the actions in the various countries;

- Deliver the actions in the various countries;

- Monitor and evaluate the results of the implemented actions.

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TASK 5.1

Objective

- Perform a market segmentation of the vulnerable consumers.

First step

- Questionnaire issuing to approximately 150 vulnerable

consumers (though the VCEA and the activity of the network

performed in WP4).

Second step

- Enrichment of the results from the questionnaires with the results

from the market survey performed in task 2.5.

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DELIVERABLE D5.1

Boundaries definition – Italy – EP risk

CL

US

TE

R Mean energy

expenditure

and

percentage of

families inside

the cluster

Criterion

#1

Criterion

#2

Criterion

#3

Criterion

#4

Criterion

#5

Criterion

#6

Criterion

#7

Criterion

#8

1 410 €

15.8% 39.7% 10.0% 8.2% 1.2% 2.9% 40.9% 10.6% 19.0%

2 560 €

24.8% 21.2% 9.8% 5.8% 2.3% 4.2% 34.7% 5.8% 23.0%

3 594 €

9.8% 16.2% 17.2% 8.0% 3.1% 4.6% 42.0% 10.2% 27.2%

4 706 €

9.7% 13.2% 10.1% 2.3% 5.7% 4.7% 35.2% 5.3% 27.3%

5 927 €

7.9% 4.5% 19.4% 2.0% 11.0% 6.6% 32.6% 4.5% 26.2%

6 1125 €

3.2% 3.4% 15.2% 1.3% 20.4% 7.6% 21.5% 4.2% 41.5%

7 661 €

3.0% 16.2% 13.0% 10.1% 4.3% 6.5% 53.0% 18.2% 44.7%

8 1010 €

7.4% 4.2% 24.2% 5.2% 13.4% 10.7% 46.5% 8.8% 34.2%

9 1113 €

10.0% 5.4% 13.9% 3.9% 17.9% 9.9% 36.5% 7.3% 33.2%

10 1277 €

4.6% 2.1% 25.2% 5.0% 27.0% 10.6% 39.7% 5.9% 33.8%

11 1716 €

2.4% 2.0% 22.1% 1.1% 45.1% 17.0% 33.0% 4.3% 43.0%

12 1945 €

1.5% 5.8% 31.9% 0.9% 50.9% 22.6% 34.5% 11.1% 20.8%

Clusters more at risk of

energy poverty: 1, 3, 7, 11, 12

% of population: 32,5%

1 indicator: 24,5%

2 indicators: 12,0%

3 indicators: 4,6%

People at risk of

energy poverty:

12,0% – 24,5% The same as in another study on EP in Italy

(Faiella, Lavecchia, Borgarello 2017)

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TASK 5.2

Objective

Design and develop the ASSIST actions in the various countries

involving 750 vulnerable consumers with the goal to reduce their

energy consumption by approximately 7%

with national social and energy key market players and

stakeholders to discuss the ASSIST actions and collects hints

and suggestions for a successful implementation of the actions

2 THINK TANK WORKSHOPS

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Date: October, 26th 2017 from 10 am to 5 pm

Location: AU headquarter, Rome

Organizers: AISFOR-AU-RSE

Official invitation letter

sent individually to

each participants

Description of the

project and goals

of the event

FIRST VCSC & THINK TANK EVENT IN ITALY

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Date: April, 11th 2018 from 2 pm to 5:30 pm

Location: Casa dell’Energia, A2A facility, Milano

Organizer: RSE

Goals:

• Present ASSIST project to several

stakeholders;

• Present HEA training and actions;

• Discussion of the identified actions

proposals with relevant stakeholders

(brainstorming PROS and CONS);

• Proposal of other possible actions by

stakeholders (brainstorming);

• Other advices from stakeholders

(brainstorming/post-it).

SECOND THINK TANK EVENT IN ITALY

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ASSIST 2GETHER Project – Action proposal

Soft/engagement

activities

Actions

Synergies

Time Costs

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ASSIST 2GETHER Project – Action proposal

Involved HEAs from:

- High-school students;

- Local consumers associations;

- Trade unions;

- Energy companies;

- Private companies;

- Public bodies;

- Social housing operators;

- Social workers;

- Charity organizations.

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HEAs training

Areas Modules Mode

M1 – Introductory module ASSIST- HEAs: ASSIST and HEA’s profile/action/network

Energy consumption behaviour analysis

M2 Energy is…

M3 Social System: energy vulnerability and energy poverty

M4 Privacy and data management

Consumption checkup and Energy

“Support”

M5 Energy consumption check-up

M6 Energy consumption behaviour “support”

M7 ASSIST Action /

Communication and consumers advice

M8 Energy and Communication

M9 How to communicate /

M10 Planning and management of communication

Moodle-based learning platform

Blended learning mode, with

possibility of dedicated class

trainings

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TASK 5.3

Objective

Delivering the ASSIST2gether ACTIONS in the various countries

involving 750 vulnerable consumers with the goal to reduce their

energy consumption by approximately 7%.

Moreover, carrying out a SWOT analysis on each of the national

actions carried out and preparing the ASSIST2gether Action

National Reports.

All the results are available in deliverables D5.3 and D5.5.

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ASSIST Activities

Soft/engagement activities

Actions Synergies

ASSIST2gether activities - Italy

2% 7% 2%

@750

consumers

@2,000

consumers

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Soft/engagement

activities Actions Synergies

Advice at home

supplies shop

Energy café

(consumers

association, energy

provider)

Home visits and

dedicated

consultancy by

social/health workers

Help desks

counselling for

vulnerable

consumers at

consumers

association premises

Help desks for

Vulnerable

Consumers through

Charity organizations

Distribution of

material and

provision of

information to

targeted consumers

2% 7%

Distribution of

material to targeted

consumers

Consultancy on

financial support

General education

activities (social

workers)

2%

Overall engagement:

- ~8.500 VC with soft actions and

synergies (monitored through moodle)

- 618 VC with ASSIST action

ASSIST2gether activities - Italy

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Type of activity

Number of

HEAs

delivering the

action

Number of

households or

consumers

reached

Soft/engagement activity #1 Advice at home supplies shop (Leroy

Merlin) 198 500 households

Soft/engagement activity #2 Energy cafès 2 130 households

Soft/engagement activity #3 Consultancy on financial support 1 82 households

Soft/engagement activity #4 Education activity at disabled pupils school 1 20 households

Soft/engagement activity #5 Energy café + education activity from social

worker 1 35 households

Soft/engagement activity #6 Energy café at energy provider premises 1 2 households

Soft/engagement activity #7 Energy café at charity premises 1 13 households

Soft/engagement activity #8 Education activity at trade union premises 1 7 households

Soft/engagement activity #9 Distribution of material and provision of

information to targeted consumers 6 3,277 consumers

Soft/engagement activity #10 Online help desk on efficient behaviour

and energy bills 1 2,958 consumers

Soft/engagement activity #11 Consumers’ workshop 1 25 households

Soft/engagement activity #12 Consumers’ workshop 1 50 households

Action #1 Home visits and dedicated consultancy by social/health

workers 3 28 consumers

Action #2 Help desks counselling for vulnerable consumers at

consumers association premises 9 590 consumers

Synergy #1 Help desks for Vulnerable Consumers through Charity

organizations 1 5 households

Synergy #2 Distribution of material and provision of information to

targeted consumers 1 45 households

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SWOT ANALYSIS of ASSIST2gether activities

Strengths

- Direct contact with consumers in energy poverty and vulnerability;

- Consumers associations are strongly rooted in the local context and

thus are able to identify the consumer who are more in needs to

receive support;

- The support of volunteer is fundamental to identify the consumers who

are more in need and could benefit of the support provided by ASSIST

activities;

- Home visits allow to see the real living conditions of the person and to

provide more precise advice relative to the single state.

Weaknesses

- A long time is required to carry out support actions due to the

difficulties that might arise in the interaction with vulnerable families,

often located in a challenging environment;

- Bureaucratic issues with some HEAs;

- Low involvement of HEAs (23 HEAs out of 204 trained) and low

engagement of some active HEAs (some just filled 1-2 questionnaires);

- Low possibility of consumers bringing energy bills with them (even if

continuously reminded) in some cases;

- Impossibility to carry on some foreseen activities, especially for

synergies.

- Uncertainties on the number of reached consumers for soft actions +

low engagement in filling the monitoring questionnaire on the platform

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Opportunities

- Actions carried out by consumers associations can really be

effective due to their deep integration in the territory which

allows the persistence of the actions over time;

- Involvement of people who otherwise would have never been

involved (such as in Energy cafès);

- Create a regular information flow to keep consumers engaged.

Threats

- Regular participation of vulnerable consumers;

- Low possibility to actually implement or take up general energy

efficiency advice in some cases;

- Risk of not correct communication and stigmatisation of the

person;

- A lot of consumers tend to lose interest after the first contact

and therefore it is important to keep them interested with an

appealing way to provide information;

- Consumers might not be aware of the existence of the help

desk, which should be advertised as much as possible.

SWOT ANALYSIS of ASSIST2gether activities

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TASK 5.4

Objective

Define and implement precise national monitoring mechanism for

the ASSIST2gether network and action.

For the action monitoring, the partners will consider a two-fold

monitoring process:

- a specific one using a small group of the consumers addressed

in the action

- a more general one addressing all engaged consumers.

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ASSIST2gether FINAL RESULTS

FINAL RESULTS

Overall ASSIST Energy Savings Indicator (ESI) 5.5%

Overall Vulnerability Empowerment Factor (VEF) 0.5

ASSIST Energy Savings Indicator (ESI): assesses the actual energy

saved by the engaged vulnerable consumers, their increased comfort

inside their homes and, more in general, the quality of their lives:

Vulnerability Empowerment Factor (VEF): assesses consumers’

confidence in dealing with energy related issues inside their dwellings.

Energy savings: it represents the amount of energy saved thanks to

the ASSIST actions, both in kWh and in percentage (%).

Lessons learned - Italy

• Involve consumers associations since the beginning of the project;

• Allow more time to HEAs for the collection of both the ex-ante and the

ex-post questionnaire to face the difficulties of interacting with

vulnerable consumers;

• Increase the time between the compilation of the ex-ante questionnaire

and the ex-post one, in order to monitor a longer period;

• A detailed plan on which information to send to consumers and how to

organize them should be defined well in advance. Moreover,

consumers should be divided into target groups and tailor made

information should be provided to each of them.

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This project has received funding from the European

Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation

programme under grant agreement No 754051

www.assist2gether.eu

Thanks for your attention

Simone Maggiore simone.maggiore@rse-web.it

Anna Realini anna.realini@rse-web.it