Good practice:

Empowering vulnerable citizens to save energy with the “Give Energy” campaign

There are over 60,000 energy-poor people in Plovdiv who are experiencing difficulties in covering their energy bills and are heated by polluting solid fuels or with electricity in an inefficient way. In continuing the local tradition organised by Schneider Electric Bulgaria (SE) and Energy Agency of Plovdiv (EAP) to fight energy poverty, in 2019, SE launched a 7 day campaign entitled “Give Energy”. It aimed to engage citizens by focusing their attention on the energy poverty topic, where citizens were able to contribute by:
• Doing 100 steps in order to illuminate specifically created “Tree”. Each tree illumination would lead to the provision of an energy saving package
• A total of 2019 vulnerable households are selected to receive an energy saving package (set of devices and a leaflet on how to be energy efficient, including tips for RES), empowering them to reduce their consumption. The majority of selected households are heated with wood and coal.
In order to engage the communities and reach out to the most vulnerable NGOs are joining and will help with the communication and delivery. An agreement with local logistics company is also completed to deliver some of the packages for free. The local action support positive impact on climate by reducing the energy consumption of a number of households and by delivering sophisticated knowledge on more sustainable energy behaviour. The project is helping local communities to develop, implement and sustain their own solution.

• 45,000€ in form of energy and water saving devices;
• 3,000€ for communication materials;
• 5,000 – 10,000€ to build and coordinate the campaign;
• Volunteers and a logistics company to deliver the energy saving packages for free.
Funding source - private (Schneider Electric Foundation)

• 5 NGOs and a number of volunteers engaged in volunteering action ;
• 2019 households receiving energy saving packages ;
• 2019 people achieved 100 steps, as to to iluminate the tree, many more participated ;
• Average reduction of 2-4 % of energy bills per household;
• An average of 100 kg of CO2 reduction per household.

• Lack of culture of trust in providing something for free and thus in engagement and empowerment of the vulnerable groups remains one of the key challenges ;
• Activation of volunteers and/or logistics company in a charity action (delivering packages for free).

The described campaigns are transfering experience derived from the sucess stories developed already at local level. Between 2016-2018, 3 small scale campaign were coordinated by EAP and SE engaging students and other voluteers in energy advising of low-income households and delivering set of deveices.
In general, citizens empowemrent through advice can lead to behaviour change and to improved knowledge on sustainable use of energy and RES, which is highly beneficial.
This makes this type of measure transferable among different countries and regions. Finally, similar collaboration improves access to relevant assistance organisations, NGOs, companies with CSR (corporate social responsibility).