TIRANA, Feb. 26 – Two thirds of Albanian households say they face difficulty in paying off their monthly electricity bills and massively undertake actions to reduce their electricity consumption, especially during winter, something which practically places them under energy poverty, a survey has found.
The findings are unveiled in a report by a local NGO assessing the energy performance of Albanian buildings through the concept of energy poverty affecting households unable to access electricity at home at affordable prices.
“In households [an average of 3.8 people] with average monthly income of up to 10,000 lek (€75), at least 36 percent of income goes to pay the electricity bill, compared to up to 12 percent for households with monthly income of more than 50,000 lek (€377),” showed the survey conducted in the third quarter of 2017 by EDEN, a Tirana-based center for environmental development education and networking.
Some 80,000 Albanian households received modest social assistance of up to 4,460 lek (€33.7) a month at the third quarter of 2017, according to state statistical institute, INSTAT. The country’s minimum wage is 24,000 lek (€181), the lowest among regional EU aspirant Western Balkan countries.
The survey showed electricity bills are often unaffordable for low-income households and a significant burden to households with monthly income of up to 50,000 lek (€377).
The energy poverty survey was conducted with 2,000 respondents that included vulnerable households, public education and health institutions and hotels in Tirana, Elbasan, Shkodra, Vlora and Berat, five of the country’s major cities.
About half of the respondents said they were neither happy, nor unhappy and 7 percent described themselves as unhappy.
About a third of public education and health facilities as well as public administration institutions face problems with mold and moisture, the survey showed.
“The results of this report prove the country’s current situation and pave the way for promoting best policies and practices enabling energy efficiency, the diversification of resources for clean energy and at affordable prices by Albania’s poor and middle-income citizens,” say the authors of the study.
“Energy poverty is a necessary concept to categorize groups under financial pressure as a result of electricity bills, but who are not considered poor under the general poverty definition,” they add.
Researchers say that in case the problem is not duly addressed and treated, it has implications on the deterioration of the resident population’s health, the deepening of poverty and even the prevention of policies that address climate changes.
“By taking the necessary measures, financial support to households in need could no longer be a burden to the state budget,” they suggest.
The survey showed there is small difference in temperature between the buildings’ indoor and outdoor facilities and that even houses built in the past five years do not meet thermal insulation standards.
The study also shows the overwhelming majority of Albanian households use electricity for household and water heating, but only about 37 percent use it for cooking with cheaper liquid gas and firewood used as an alternative.
Albania approved an energy efficiency law in 2016 as part of its commitments to meet Energy Community obligations and has set to meet a 38 percent target of renewable energy consumption by 2020.
An earlier World Bank report has found that almost half of Albania’s population lives in energy poverty, recognized as spending more than 10 percent of household income on energy.
The situation reflects the high prices charged on electricity to households in one of Europe’s poorest countries although Albania meets the overwhelming majority of its electricity needs through its state-run hydro dependent electricity generation.
The World Bank report singles Albania out as one of the countries where more than 40 percent households spend more than 10 percent of their income on electricity bills.
The situation is also a result of poorly insulated buildings, lack of central heating systems and electricity massively used for heating and cooling facilities.
Thousands of Albanian households continue to pay off their accumulated unpaid bills in monthly instalments following a late 2014 nationwide campaign to cut off illegal grid connections and increase collection rates.
The report identified one family that had no electricity access for seven years, using liquid gas for cooking and candles for lighting.
At €0.0824/kWh (tax included), Albania’s household electricity prices in 2017 were twice lower compared to the EU 28 average of €0.2, but higher compared to several regional countries including Serbia, Kosovo and Bosnia and Herzegovina, according to Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union.
Earlier Eurostat reports have also confirmed Albania has one of Europe’s lowest consumer prices but suffers the poorest per capita consumption.
Inequality gap
Albania’s inequality gap widened in 2016 as the richest 10 percent of households spent 2.5 times more than the overwhelming 90 percent of Albanians, an annual survey conducted by state statistical institute, INSTAT, has found.
An average household of 3.9 people in the bottom income decile spent some 63,609 lek (€471) a month in 2016 with a per capita spending of 18,119 lek (€134), slightly above the estimated subsistence level of 16,000 lek (€119) calculated by the Ombudsman’s office.
Meanwhile, the richest 10 percent of Albanians, whose households are composed of an average of 2.6 people, spent an average of 158,946 lek (€1,177) a month, with a per capita spending of 62,562 lek (€463), almost the same to what an average of household of four in the bottom income spends.
