Abstract
The global energy price crisis that started in 2021—then exacerbated by the Russian invasion of Ukraine in March 2022—has caused unprecedented increases in electricity and gas bills. To contrast this rise, EU Member States implemented several ‘emergency measures’ protecting energy consumers. This paper theoretically estimates the 2022 burden of energy bills on Spanish households, with a particular focus on vulnerable ones. This assessment is carried out by simulating alternative scenarios to evaluate the consequences of the energy prices rise and the effect of the national emergency measures implemented to counteract the energy crisis impact. A disproportionate expenditure indicator is also applied to the vulnerable consumer group that benefitted from the social tariffs to provide a first proxy of the 2022 energy poverty situation in Spain. The results show that these policies significantly reduced regulated market consumers’ bills, the vulnerable ones being the most protected by them. However, the high energy burden estimated for the latter category of customers reflects the insufficient ‘energy efficiency preparation’ of these households to react to energy price shocks. The insights of this assessment might eventually advise policymakers on future decisions during emergency scenarios.
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Data availability
The data will be provided upon reasonable request.
Notes
Consumers at risk of social exclusion are co-living units that comply with the income criterion set for severely vulnerable consumers and are attended by Social Services. The electricity bills of these consumers are paid half by the Social Services and half by the Energy retailer.
The 2M indicator is an energy poverty metric prescribed by the EPAH-EPOV and the Spanish National Energy Poverty Strategy. The traditional methodology uses actual energy expenditures, while Barrella et al. (2021b) proposed to calculate the 2M by using absolute expenditures—calculated with the RENE model (Barrella et al., 2022)—in the estimation of the household’s share of energy expenditure over income.
Data on vulnerable consumers benefitting from the social tariffs at the end of the year 2021 were provided by the Ministry for the Ecological Transition (MITECO, 2022). These consumers benefitted from electricity social tariff and TSA during 2022.
This report provides data until October 2022 inclusive.
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Acknowledgements
I am grateful to Prof. José Luis Sancha who provided the electricity price data used to assess the impact of the gas price cap introduced by the ‘Iberian exception’.
Funding
I am grateful to the Chair of Energy and Poverty at Comillas Pontifical University for funding this study.
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Barrella, R. Households’ energy burden during the 2022 crisis: a policy impact assessment in a Southern European country. Energy Efficiency 17, 12 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12053-024-10192-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12053-024-10192-2