Mitigation of Energy Poverty through consumers behaviour: pilot actions in Italy

Energy poverty (EP) represents one of the greatest challenges in the European Union (EU), affecting 50 to 125 million people. To tackle it, several EU and national policies and initiatives have been put in place in the last years. Among these, there is a significant funding for projects (e.g. Horizon 2020 (H2020)) related to the mitigation of this phenomenon. ASSIST2gether, funded under the Grant Agreement n. 754051, is a H2020 project with the goal to tackle energy poverty through pilot actions aiming to increase consumers awareness about energy efficiency and change their consumption behaviour. After training specialized Home Energy Advisors (HEAs) from different sectors (charities, consumers associations, energy utilities, social workers, etc…), pilot actions have been implemented in all the countries involved in the project (Belgium, Finland, Italy, Poland, Spain and the UK), with the aim to optimize energy consumption of vulnerable users through more efficient behaviours. This paper presents the results of the pilot actions carried out in Italy.