Unpacking the spaces and politics of energy poverty:

Path dependencies, deprivation and fuel switching in post-communist Hungary

Sergio Tirado-HerreroStefan Bouzarovski

Saska PetrovaUniversity of Manchester

Diana Ürge-VorsatzCentral European University

Introduction

• Need to understand the wider political and spatial aspects of energy poverty

• Central and Eastern Europe:- Growing energy poverty rates since 1990s• Social safety nets, prices, energy efficiency

• Hungary- 20+ years of increase in domestic energy prices- 10 to 30% of the population in energy poverty

as of the end of the 2000s

Energy vulnerability• ‘Energy vulnerability’ thinking

- Propensity to suffer from a lack of adequate energy services in the home

- Dynamic assessment of risk and resilience• Pathways, conditions and tipping points

- Multi-scalar conceptualisation• From single households to supra-national entities

- Risk of diminishing the agency of endangered populations

Aims and objectives

• The paper explores how energy poverty:- is embedded in infrastructural provision

systems and processes of institutional change;- influences the structure of domestic energy

demand;- shapes political debates and decisions.

• Hungary as case study- ‘Multiple transformations’ in post-communist

countries

Methodological approach • Energy poverty is ‘constructed through

diverse pathways, and is a dynamic phenomenon, not easily reduced to a single metric’ (Hall, Hards, and Bulkeley 2013)

• Indicators and measures:- Analysis of the ‘affordability gap’ - Expenditure-based indicators: energy burden• Household Budget Survey (HBS)

- Consensual or self-reported indicators• EU Survey on Income and Living Conditions (SILC)

Driving forces of EP in Hungary

• Systemic path-dependencies: socialist legacies and post-socialist reforms

• Dependency on imported natural gas- Discovery of domestic gas reserves in 1960/70s- Long-term contract with Gazprom until 2016

• Restructuring of the energy sector- Price increase and utility liberalisation- Recent turn towards statist governance

Source: hg.hu

SINGLE-FAMILY HOMES BUILT BEFORE 1992

• Over 50% of the total residential floor area in 2010• High specific energy consumption for space heating: 300 to 500 kWh m-2 year-1

Pre-fab ‘panel’ blocks with DH[Csepel, district XXI Budapest]

Lack of individual metering and T control

Relatively inefficient buildings (230 kWh/m2.year)

Inability to disconnect individual apartments

Non-payment as a coping strategy

High energy costs per sqm. / per person

Small size of apartments (54 sqm.)

Households’ indebtedness

Lower investment on upgrading or maintenance of DH systems

Households trapped in warm apartments but subject to high energy costs

BUT… no cold housing-related impacts: UNCONVENTIONAL CASE of fuel poverty

Large standing charges(fixed costs of DH)

Not higher than average FP rates (expenditure approach)

An energy ‘affordability gap’

Purchasing power gains

Domestic energy affordability gap

The ‘price hike’ of natural gas

Changes in the structure of household consumption

Disproportionate energy burdens

Self-reported indicators

Transformative practices: coping strategies

• Highlights agency of vulnerable populations• Delayed payment or non-payment

- Risk of indebtedness, disconnection and pre-payment meters

• Fuel switching or ‘energy degradation’- Firewood 2nd most common source of heat- Rural, single family homes- Correlation with low income

Use of solid fuels vs. income

Political resonances: price regulations and subsidies

• First wave – mid 2000s- Regulated price of natural gas and DH, reduced

VAT for DH- Means-tested subsidies since 2007

• Second wave - Across-the-board cuts in utility prices- Political strategy to gain electoral support

Rezsiharc and rezsicsökkentés

Hungarian Parliamentary Elections 2014

Conclusions

• Energy poverty extends across social and spatial strata

• Energy vulnerability as a pervasive feature• Emerges at the nexus of socio-technical

legacies and post-1990 systemic restructuring

• Politically reactive, populist policy response• Complex interaction with climate policies

Thank youurban-energy.org@stiradoherrero@stefanbuzar@curemanchester