SMART-UP, Smart Meters to fight against energy poverty

admin on 8 March 2021

Technicians advising a neighbour on the use of the Smart Meters

Smart monitors that let you know the energy that is being spent in a household at each time and thus be able to change consumption practices to reduce the energy bill. The Smart Meters incorporate small home screens (In-House) in which each household can visualize its consumption in real time.

This system has been developed as part of a European project between 2015 and 2018, with 5 participating countries. The project also included the training of the various agents who are in relation with vulnerable users: social workers, installers, etc. Training guides can be found for free on the project’s website and are adapted to the context and language of each participating country. This training allowed for gaining the knowledge needed to accompany users in the use of Smart Meters, interpreting consumer data, and knowing the possible measures to be taken to reduce the amount of energy bills.

Characteristics of innovation

Bank of innovations, Information and planning, Lab, New technological tool, Pilot project, Poverty and exclusion, Prediction and prevention, Proximity care, Self-management and participation, User empowerment

Location

Spain, France, Italy, Malta, United Kindom

Partners/Funders

European Comission (Horizon 2020)

Genesis

The project started in 2015 with the aim of reducing the electrical consumption of vulnerable households suffering from energy poverty. Before the implementation of this project, users didn’t find a relationship between energy consumption and the bill at the end of the month. The project was born to show that both variables are related and that more efficient consumption can result in significant savings in the bill.

Level of implementation

Ecoserveis has coordinated the Smart-Up project on Spanish territory, managing a pilot test with the participation of 1870 households, about 60 of which installed an intelligent monitor. In 2018 the project as a whole reached 23 participating organizations, 530 people formed to provide consultancy, and 4,463 attended households. In the final evaluations, it was noted that 80% of households had applied one or more measures to reduce the consumption of energy and that 65% had increased the use of Smart Meters installed under the project.

Further information

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Personal budgets, a new model that facilitates the autonomy and decision-making capacity of people with disabilities

admin on 2 March 2021

User creating his Personal Budget with the help of an adviser

A system targeted at disabled people who need long-term care and support, which enables the individual to decide which services he or she wants to receive and how he or she wants to receive them. This is thanks to a Personal Budget that is allocated to him and that the person himself can decide how to spend it.

First, the person, who needs to be over 17 years old, makes a personal budget request, making an application to indicate what activities he wants to do, what support he has currently, whether these are sufficient or not to meet his needs, what are his strengths and weaknesses, etc. Once the request is made, a multidisciplinary team issues a report in which they objectively assess the needs of the person and the Personal Budget that would fit him best.

Once the Personal Budget is granted to the person, they will be able to decide freely, firstly, whether to receive it in the form of coupons or bank transfer. Secondly, what type of services they want to invest in: direct home care, participation in therapies, obtaining an individual supervisor for one day trips, hiring a transport company to manage their mobility, etc.

In this way, the Flemish system of Personal Budgets allows for long-term care which provides greater autonomy for disabled people in deciding how to meet their own needs on the basis of the range of services available.