The Greek Crisis and its effects on energy poverty S. Petrova.pdfPetrova, S., Torres Garcia, M., Bouzarovski, S. (2016) "Using action research to enhance learning on end-use energy

The Greek Crisis and its effects on energy poverty !!!

Saska Petrova University of Manchester

Acknowledgments to Alexandra Prodromidou, City College, Thessaloniki

Petrova, S., Torres Garcia, M., Bouzarovski, S. (2016) "Using action research to enhance learning on end-use energy demand: lessons from reflective practice." Environmental Education Research. Bouzarovski, S, and Petrova, S. (2015) "A global perspective on domestic energy deprivation: Overcoming the energy poverty-fuel poverty binary." Energy Research & Social Science 10: 31-40. Bouzarovski, S, Tirado Herrero, S, Petrova, S, and Urge-Vorsatz, D.(2015) "Unpacking the spaces and politics of energy poverty: path-dependencies, deprivation and fuel switching in post-communist Hungary." Local Environment(2015). Petrova, S. (2014) "Contesting forest neoliberalization: Recombinant geographies of 'illegal' logging in the Balkans." Geoforum 55(2014) : 13-21. Petrova S, Posova D, Sykora L, House A. (2013) "Discursive Framings of Low Carbon Urban Transitions: The Contested Geographies of 'Satellite Settlements' in the Czech Republic." Urban Studies 50, no. 7(2013) : 1439-1455. Petrova, S, Gentile, M, Makinen, IH, Bouzarovski, S. (2013) "Perceptions of thermal comfort and housing quality: exploring the microgeographies of energy poverty in Stakhanov, Ukraine." Environment and Planning A 45, no. 5(2013) : 1240-1257

Recent Papers

EVALUATE: Energy Vulnerability and Urban Transitions in Europe (2013-2018), funded by the European Research Council - scrutinises the manner in which urban institutional structures, built tissues and everyday practices shape energy vulnerability at a variety of geographical scales. DOMESTIC NEXUS: Unpacking the interconnectivity of energy and water demand (2016), funded by the University of Manchester Humanities Strategic Investment Research Fund - explores the everyday consumption of energy and water in the context of urban, peri-urban and rural transformations in post-socialist countries with fast increasing economies. SA-URBATRANS: Urban Transformation in South Africa Through Co-Designing Energy Services Provision Pathways (2016-2019), funded by ESRC-NRF - investigates the dynamics and co-evolution of municipal processes so as to create pathways to new, greener and fairer urban energy configurations. The project establishes a dialogue between work on socio-technical transitions and on energy geographies to analyse and identify energy transition pathways towards municipal-scale energy services regimes. !

Ongoing Projects

Situating energy poverty (1) •  Understood as the inability of households to secure socially- and materially-

necessitated levels of energy services in the home.

•  Energy poverty has traditionally been conceptualized within the triad of energy prices, incomes and energy efficiency, and mostly in relation to domestic heating (Bouzarovski and Petrova 2015).

•  Focused on a set of relatively well-defined groups: pensioners, low-income families with children, people with long-term illnesses (Liddell 2012).

•  ‘Non-traditional’ social formations have generally been excluded from relevant

debates. •  Economic pressures created by the crisis have particularly affected the ‘non-

traditional’ groups !!

Primary renewables

Mechanical power

Solid fuels, derivatives

Liquid fuels, derivatives

Natural gas, derivatives

Electric power

Secondary heat

Space heating

Water heating

Space cooling

Refrigeration

Cooking

Drying

Lighting

Appliances

IT

System of provision

Conversion to ‘useful’ energy

Household demand

Indirect energy services

Carriers Services

Energy services and needs (1)

•  ‘Benefits that energy carriers produce for human well being’ (Modi et al. 2005)

•  People do not demand kWhs but a warm and

well-lit home (Haas et al 2008) •  Conventional metrics do not capture the

satisfaction received by the final user (Petrova et al 2013)

•  A single energy carrier can offer multiple energy services

•  One type of energy service may be provided by different carriers, and even non-energy services

•  Services represent hybrid assemblages (Harrison and

Popke 2011) of social and technical networks across multiple scales

•  Services satisfy needs, which are at the core of human functionings

Energy services and needs (2)

Vulnerability factors Access: Poor availability of energy carriers appropriate to meet household needs (e.g. underdeveloped gas networks)

Affordability: High ratio between cost of fuels and household incomes, including role of tax systems or assistance schemes

Flexibility: Inability to switch among different carriers so as to respond to household needs or other constraints

Efficiency: Disproportionately high loss of useful energy during energy conversions in the home

Needs: Mismatch between household energy requirements and available energy services; for social, cultural, economic or health reasons

Practices: Normativities and routines surrounding lighting in the home

Primary renewables

Mechanical power

Solid fuels, derivatives

Liquid fuels, derivatives

Natural gas, derivatives

Electric power

Secondary heat

Space heating

Water heating

Space cooling

Refrigeration

Cooking

Drying

Lighting

Appliances

IT

System of provision

Conversion to ‘useful’ energy

Household demand

Indirect energy services

Carriers Services Access

Affordability Needs

Practices Efficiency Flexibility

Starting points (1)

•  A wealth of academic studies on the economic and financial aspects of the crisis (Gialis and Leontidou, 2014; Knight, 2013; Mavroudeas, 2014; Mylonas, 2014) and the development of political resistance (Dalakoglou and Kallianos, 2014; Douzinas, 2013)

•  Rationalist and positivist approaches - a dominant means of exploration and interpretation of the economic crisis

•  A picture explained via statistical and mathematical models using hard data (Papagaroufali, 2011).

•  Such approaches do not capture people’s lived experiences and coping strategies in periods of crisis Georgakopoulou (2014)

Average!annual!household!oil!and!fuel!expenditure!in!Greece!

Source: Based on Eurostat

Lack of academic research focusing on the micro-perspectives of the crisis, which explores what has been happening in the homes and communities of ordinary people in Greece (Kaika, 2012; Rakopoulos, 2014)

‘A group of people who belonged, until recently, to the middle classes, but were spitted out from these ranks as they lost their

jobs, took massive cuts in their salaries or pensions, or had their homes repossessed.’ (Kaika 2012, p. 423)

The challenges faced by this new social class are not created by the ‘abstract crisis’ (Rakopoulos 2014) but by the imposed austerity regime (Stuckler and Basu 2013)

The ‘new urban poor’ or ‘nouveau poor’

Starting points (2)

•  Energy poverty is one of the lesser- publicized dimensions of the crisis

•  Poorly-insulated homes

•  Built, institutional and/or ownership arrangements that do not allow for improving the efficiency of the housing stock, or switching towards more affordable fuels (Katsoulakos, 2011; Santamouris et al., 2014, 2013, 2007)

•  Electricity cuts and blackouts

Energy poverty: identification and regulation

•  Social tariffs provided by the Public Power Corporation (PPC): about 40% discount; 7% of the customers eligible to use them

•  The ‘Energy saving in the home’ campaign - to raise awareness about

energy efficiency in the residential sector; lower income households could receive up to 70% subsidy for the interventions in their home

•  Heating oil allowance: based on technical and financial criteria

Defining energy vulnerability in Greece

Vulnerable households:

-  Households with annual, family income up to 12,000 € -  People being unemployed more than 6 months (whose family income is less

than 12,000 €) -  People with chronicle illnesses; -  Disabled people (67% disability; total family income lower than 23,500€;

total annual electricity consumption less than 6,800 kWh) -  Older people (over 70 years old) -  Families with more than three children (total family income lower than

23,500 €; total annual electricity consumption less than 6,800 kWh)

Benefits: •  Longer deadlines for paying their electricity bills (at least 40 days) •  Favourable conditions for settling up arrears in electricity bills •  Suspension of supply cut-offs •  Reduced electricity charges

Case study: Thessaloniki, Greece

Why Thessaloniki?

Relatively colder winter temperatures compared to other major urban areas in the country

The resilient city: evidence of diverse

economies

Arguments and research questions

•  The dismantling of traditional forms of energy provision (Nye 1996) as a

result of austerity policies opens the space for non-market and informal economic strategies (Gibson-Graham 1996)

•  (Re)emergence of a communal ethos and various neighbourhood

‘experiments’ (Anastasopoulos 2013)!

!

•  How are experiences of energy poverty in Greece are underpinned by the social and spatial infrastructures of everyday life?

•  Which are the everyday strategies and tactics developed to combat and overcome the state of being vulnerable?

•  How have the economic crisis and austerity regime affected energy poverty?

!

Field research undertaken in 2013 and 2014 under the EVENT project and in 2015 Two sets of interviews and ‘energy diaries’ with 25 households, including 77 people in Thessaloniki Analysis of documentary evidence, 10 decision-maker interviews !

•  The findings indicated that many of the households included in the research were suffering from a lack of adequate energy services in the home

•  The emergence of domestic energy deprivation in privately rented housing is also conditioned by multiple demographic and housing factors specific to this group

Encountering!energy!poverty!in!Greece!

Energy poverty beyond space heating and thermal comfort •  Dependency on a wide range of

energy services (especially information technology)

Not only cold, but humid too…

Electricity consumption of households by device in 2012 (excluding heating, cooling and water heating)

Services (Devices) Share (%)

Electrical Cooker 38.4

Lighting 6.4

Laundry 10.6

Dishwasher 3.6

Refrigerator 14.7

Other uses 9.1

Services (Devices) Expenditure by device in 2012 - average household (€/year)

Electrical Cooker 214.56

Lighting 35.76

Laundry 59.23

Dishwasher 20.12

Refrigerator 82.14

Other uses 50.85

Source: Based on the Survey for Household energy consumption, Hellenic Statistical Authority

!‘We decided to use the water heater at specific times when we can all take a bath around the same time and do house chores.’ (52!year!old!man,!travel!agent)!

Reshaping of everyday practices

Energy poverty beyond affordability and energy efficiency •  Feelings of responsibility and

care for co-habitants shaped the everyday practices of energy demand beyond narrow economic factors (e.g. earnings or prices).

‘We were planning to move to a better apartment, but our current neighbours help us with our children’ (35 year old ambulance driver)

Community resources: The beating heart of alternative economies

‘I would not be able to afford a place on my own. I am only posh when I am together with my partner.’ (37 year old woman, secretary) t

‘Sometimes I go over to a friend’s house to warm up.’ (52 year old woman, homemaker)

‘We were planning to move to a better apartment, but our current neighbours help us with our children.’ (35 year old man, ambulance driver)

Emphasis on the importance of collective agencies!

!‘If things get worse in the future I will go back to my village to live.’ (55 year old man, part time accountant) ‘We stay in our flat during the week and on the weekends we go to our villages.’ (37 year old woman, secretary)

Utilizing land assets: the ‘new peasants’

Institutionalizing energy poverty

•  The lack of strategic governance and poorly regulated private housing sector •  Lack of incentives to the owners for energy efficiency improvements •  The effects remain unclear/ Significant cuts in the name of austerity •  Inability to act or change

Temporality!of!energy!poverty!strategies!

•  The first responses to the risk of energy deprivation: ‘Internalisation’ of self-

discipline, a mode of self-control that always serves to regulate one’s own precariousness (Vasudevan 2015): familiar strategies and practices from the past

•  From ad hoc solutions to resistance and more strategic responses:

‘I have neither the time nor the patience to cook on/in the [wood] stove’ (50 year old self-employed woman)

‘During that period when I had to limit it we had an average temperature of 19 degrees in the house. It was borderline tolerable and not at all normal for us, because my mother is sick (and she needs proper heating). While with pellets we have 24 degrees of heating.’ (40 year self-employed woman)

• 

‘Art of governing’ energy poverty: the fear of blackouts

Needs and practices surrounding lighting used as a tool for the construction of crisis and as a mechanism for controlling vulnerable groups

Energy poverty widespread in the case study area and closely contingent upon everyday spaces of informality The lack of energy service provision alters the patterns of energy demand and creates alternative territories and spaces of resource consumption Lighting is an integral part of the rise of energy poverty and an instrument of austerity. Needs and practices surrounding lighting are used as a tool for the construction of crisis and as a mechanism for controlling vulnerable groups The ability to switch to different carriers offers opportunities for resistance and resilience The intensification of collective agencies goes hand in hand with the rise of diverse economies and new locally embedded practices

Concluding thoughts

[email protected]

http://urban-energy.org

@curemanchester

Thank you!