Juris: Estimated That There Are 150,000 Households at Risk of Energy Poverty

Bratislava, November 11 (TASR) - Approximately 150,000 households in Slovakia are at risk of energy poverty, stated Office for the Regulation of Network Industries (URSO) head Andrej Juris in an online discussion called 'Expensive heating and state aid to households' organised by the Slovak Climate Initiative in cooperation with SME conferences, the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung Foundation and gas utility SPP. "If we deduct the energy expenses in a household from the household's income and the household is left less than 1.5 times the subsistence minimum of the household members, then the household is considered to be at risk of energy poverty," as Juris explained the draft definition of energy poverty. According to researcher at the Prognostic Institute of the Slovak Academy of Sciences Dusana Dokupilova, eight percent of households, that is 150,000, are in extreme poverty. "These are households that cannot save, for example, even €30 from their income so that they can replace windows or front doors in the future. These are households that have a very serious problem," said Dokupilova, adding that due to limited resources the state should start helping the poorest households. "Determining whether a household is energy poor is quite difficult," pointed out deputy director general of the Slovak Environment Agency Kristina Korcekova. am/mcs/ko