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Comparing “energy poverty” in Germany with other countries
Comparing “energy poverty” in Germany with other countries
By Craig Morris on 9 August 2016
Recently, I had dinner with a group of North Americans who had come to Berlin to see what they could learn from the German energy transition. A Canadian expressed his concern that “Germany has hundreds of thousands of people who cannot pay their power bills.”
“The exact number is around 350,000,” I answered, “and we know this because the country’s Network Agency publishes the figure every year.” I then asked the group whether that number was high or low. For instance, how many households in Canada or the US had their power cut off for failing to pay the bills?
No one knew.
As we pondered the irony of energy experts not knowing statistics about their own countries that they know about Germany, I put the numbers into context. “That’s 0.9 percent of the 39.9 million households in Germany.” Still, how does that performance stack up internationally?
The visitors to Germany did not know because other countries don’t always publish their statistics. Whenever the US press reports on such matters, we get a hodgepodge of numbers from particular utilities. Usually, we are only provided with the number of households affected (such as 70,000 in Memphis over eight months) without any indication of the percentage. Another example: 91,000 households in Iowa (equivalent to seven percent of all households in the state) received disconnection notices in the fall of 2015. There are no statistics on “energy poverty” for the US as a whole.
Judging from this article, Canada does not collect official statistics either (but please drop us a link in the comment box below if you know better). We simply know that a bank survey of Canadian households with incomes of at least 50,000 CAD found that 40 percent had trouble paying their monthly energy bills at least once in 2014...
Read more at http://reneweconomy.com.au/2016/comparing-energy-poverty-germany-countries-79480By Craig Morris on 9 August 2016
Main Street in Lake Mills, Iowa; 7% of households in the state had their power shut off in 2015
Recently, I had dinner with a group of North Americans who had come to Berlin to see what they could learn from the German energy transition. A Canadian expressed his concern that “Germany has hundreds of thousands of people who cannot pay their power bills.”
“The exact number is around 350,000,” I answered, “and we know this because the country’s Network Agency publishes the figure every year.” I then asked the group whether that number was high or low. For instance, how many households in Canada or the US had their power cut off for failing to pay the bills?
No one knew.
As we pondered the irony of energy experts not knowing statistics about their own countries that they know about Germany, I put the numbers into context. “That’s 0.9 percent of the 39.9 million households in Germany.” Still, how does that performance stack up internationally?
The visitors to Germany did not know because other countries don’t always publish their statistics. Whenever the US press reports on such matters, we get a hodgepodge of numbers from particular utilities. Usually, we are only provided with the number of households affected (such as 70,000 in Memphis over eight months) without any indication of the percentage. Another example: 91,000 households in Iowa (equivalent to seven percent of all households in the state) received disconnection notices in the fall of 2015. There are no statistics on “energy poverty” for the US as a whole.
Judging from this article, Canada does not collect official statistics either (but please drop us a link in the comment box below if you know better). We simply know that a bank survey of Canadian households with incomes of at least 50,000 CAD found that 40 percent had trouble paying their monthly energy bills at least once in 2014...
