Study of energy poverty in the European Union: the effect of distributed generation

ABSTRACT The objective of this work is to measure the energy poverty in the European Union through the construction of an Energy Poverty Index by means of the multivariant technique of factorial analysis. The index is calculated for the 28 member countries of the European Union in the years 2008 and 2017. Moreover, the effect of distributed generation renewable resources (such as photovoltaic, small hydro or micro wind) on energy poverty is studied. The obtained results show that Bulgaria, Rumania, Greece, Latvia and Lithuania are among the countries that display the highest index. The countries with the lowest index are Denmark, Sweden, Finland, the Netherlands and Slovakia, among others. The distributed generation contributes to reduce energy poverty in all countries. In fact, Ireland, France, Luxembourg, Slovenia, Finland and Sweden, have shown greater capacity than others to respond to changes in the distributed generation.