Abstract:
In the context of ongoing energy transitions, the concept of hard-to-reach energy users has been receiving growing attention. Hard-to-reach audiences are usually those who are hard to engage in energy-related interventions, with five major groups mentioned in the literature: vulnerable households, high-income households, tenants and landlords, small and medium enterprises, and commercial subsectors. In this paper, we focus our approach on non-residential hard-to-reach energy users since scarce research has been conducted on these audiences thus far. The specific needs of these vast groups have also been largely neglected by most energy policies and financing schemes. Our approach includes four steps: i) conducting a literature review, ii) proposing a non-residential hard-to-reach framework, iii) selecting a indicator set for the European Union, iv) assessing the size of these audiences in the European Union and its Member States. Key audiences identified included small and medium enterprises and micro-enterprises – characterized by size – and wholesale trade, retail trade, food services, accommodation, offices, and other activities – characterized by subsector of activity. Although data limitations are a key concern, we find that small and medium enterprises and micro-enterprises are vast audiences, comprising 99.8% and 93.5% of all enterprises in the European Union in 2020; while this percentage varies among Member States these groups are very significant. Efforts to more effectively reach these groups should focus on targeted and tailored interventions, including by focusing on the local-scale and by engaging with trusted middle actors. We hope this work sheds a light on traditionally forgotten groups in the European energy transition and that it contributes to the design of energy policies that more effectively reach the hard-to-reach.