Energy poverty indicators: A critical review of methods

Abstract

The widespread recognition of energy poverty as a distinct societal and policy challenge in the EU has resulted in a surge in the number and complexity of energy poverty metrics. Drawing from the body of white and grey literature on domestic energy deprivation indicators now available, the paper offers a review-based discussion on the risks of uncritically elaborating and reporting energy poverty statistics. It identifies key conceptual and methodological challenges including: the diversity of domestic energy services and household needs accounted for; the distinction between actual and required domestic energy expenditures; the setting of thresholds and energy poverty lines; the equivalisation of household incomes and energy expenditures; the consideration of housing costs; the stated, subjective character of responses to survey questionnaires; the measurement of the ‘depth’ of energy poverty; issues surrounding measurement units and weighted indices; and issues around the socio-demographic, spatial and temporal representativeness of data. Based on the reviewed evidence and author’s experience, the paper argues against official, single-indicator energy poverty metrics like the UK’s low income-high cost and advocates for multiple-indicator approaches that explicitly acknowledge the shortcomings of each of the methods implemented.