Energy poverty is a serious problem that is growing every day. Most of the EU countries have established some kind of mechanism to promote energy efficiency, but those mechanisms are mostly for those who can make investments. On the other hand, in most of the EU countries there are some kind of subsidies that are available to poor households. Still, in most cases, application documentation is to demanding.

General awareness raising, information or financial assistance programs do not meet the needs of the energy poor households. Hence it is necessary to adjust those mechanisms by re-thinking the communication, advising and support for the households facing this problem.

Given those factors, REACH came up with a range of activities which will help to tackle those mechanisms and find new solutions for energy poor households and their needs.

REACH focused on:

• Providing an overview of the situation in the field of energy poverty at the national level of partner countries and at the local level for pilot areas. It first familiarized the partners with energy poverty challenges and solutions in various EU countries to help them gain an insight into the field of energy poverty.
• Transferring knowledge and skills from experienced partners to teachers, volunteers and energy advisors, who then performed energy advising in energy poor households.
• Activities that were needed to visit energy poor households and empower them to reduce their energy and water use. This brought free advising about energy consumption and tailor-made advice to energy poor households.
• Establishing energy poverty as a policy issue that needs structural tailor-made solutions. Policy recommendations, both for national and EU level, were provided and a mix of activities to place energy poverty on the national and EU policy agenda were implemented.