Measuring Fuel Poverty in Italy: A Comparison between Different Indicators

Abstract

Fuel poverty is a cutting-edge topic in the broader framework of the human dimensions of energy use. Fuel poverty research activities couple the demand side with the supply side and scale up the “household scale” towards the “country scale”. This paper contributes to the present-day discussion regarding suitable indicators to quantify the incidence of fuel poverty and, in particular, it considers an Italian case study. The Italian case is peculiar, in terms of climatic conditions (encompassing a very broad range of conditions), dwelling types (in terms of construction periods and urban areas), and the many socio-demographic dimensions present. So far, a comprehensive assessment of fuel poverty in Italy is elusive and, to cover this gap in knowledge, this paper proposes a comparison between different types of indicators. To this end, different indicators taken from the literature have been considered and a novel indicator, based on the “minimum thermal comfort” constraint, has been further developed. All the proposed measures of fuel poverty have been applied to the “Household Budget Survey” (reference year: 2015) and the results have been coupled with a segmentation of Italian households, previously proposed by the authors. Using this method, the “household scale” has been scaled up to consider the whole “country scale”, in the process of identifying vulnerable households. The obtained results are of practical importance and provide a rational basis for policy-makers when planning strategies to tackle the incidence of fuel poverty in Italy.

A Review of Rural Household Energy Poverty: Identification, Causes and Governance

“…Moore (2012) [17] uses the Minimum Income Principle (MIS), which means that a household is considered energy poor if it no longer has enough income to cover its basic energy costs after housing and other needs are met. Besagni and Borgarello (2019) [18] developed a "minimum thermal expenditure" measure that compares the minimum thermal expenditure of different households with their actual annual energy expenditure to determine household energy poverty. In addition to using income or expenditure as indicators, some scholars have also used electricity consumption as a unidimensional indicator to define energy poverty, such as Falchetta et al (2021) [19], who set up a multi-sectoral potential electricity demand geospatial data-processing platform based on the consumption of residential electricity for the identification of energy-poor communities.…”