The problem of energy poverty cannot be solved without the contribution of the private sector, pleaded George Jiglău, president of the Association Centre for the Study of Democracy (ACSD) at the “Energy Day” conference organised by Energynomics within the Green Energy Expo & Romenvirotec 2025.

“Many private companies say that the energy poor are not their problem, but the state’s, but this is the wrong approach, because, firstly, we are very quickly going beyond the social purpose that should be the aim of private market activity, and secondly, although we know that the state does not have the resources, we are still passing the problem on to the state. From our point of view, solving these structural problems, which have accumulated over time and which are fueling energy poverty from the bottom up, cannot be done without the contribution of private market players,” he said.

He added that a lot of people conflate energy poverty with general poverty, but this only shifts the onus onto the state, which is then called upon to intervene with social welfare measures. However, energy poverty is quite clearly defined in the legislation on vulnerable consumers, adopted in 2021, and is in line with the European Commission’s recommendations. It takes account of the fact that energy poverty is at the confluence of the energy performance of residential buildings, household incomes and citizens’ consumption behaviour.

“The definition essentially says that a household is in energy poverty if it fails to meet its minimum energy needs. This minimum energy needs indicator is an extremely good principle, which it is very good that we have in the legislation – and this is where we need to start. However, these minimum energy needs have never been very clearly operationalised, even though we have the know-how to do this at state level. Once we know what energy poverty is, the question arises: what do we do with the energy poor? Because here we have another problem, that of identifying them”, continued Jiglău.

There are currently three or four initiatives at government level to identify households that are in some form of energy poverty. The problem is that, not having operationalised that principle of minimum energy needs, each ministry uses other criteria – and most of the criteria are income criteria. This approach creates a vicious circle fuelling the misperception that energy poverty or vulnerable consumer status simply means poverty.

Jiglău emphasised that the phenomenon of energy poverty is very dynamic, and recent years have amply demonstrated this. More specifically, the energy poor are not always the same. For example, there are consumers today who, as long as the price cap is in place, are not necessarily affected. However, when the cap is lifted on electricity and, in a year’s time, on gas, they could again face problems paying their bills, especially for heating. However, middle-class consumers may be interested in taking preventive measures in case of such shocks, which also creates business opportunities for energy companies.

The conference „Energy Day at Green Energy Expo & Romenvirotec” was organized by Energynomics, with the support of our partners Elektra Renewable Support, LONGi, SolaX Power and with the involvement of HENRO, COGEN România, CIGRE România and FEL România.