ASSIST

About ASSIST

ASSIST is a 38 month European ‘market activation – policy orientation’ project to tackle fuel poverty and support vulnerable consumers. It answers the call requirements to actively engage consumers in the energy market and positively change behaviour in relation to energy consumption and to influence design of policy at all levels to tackle fuel poverty issues.

Based on the conclusion of the “Energy Citizens’ Forum”, it combines activities that address both energy and social issues as fuel poverty is not only an energy issue nor can it be tackled in isolation of the bigger issue of poverty, it will:

• Broaden understanding on European fuel poverty incidence and how energy support services are effectively tackling the issue, identify best practice and needs but also provide a baseline against which the activity can be compared to demonstrate its effectiveness and to inform work towards policy orientation.
• Create an European network and build this by ensuring quality knowledge and skills of the Vulnerable Consumer Energy Advisors (VCEA) with a supportive infrastructure for professional development and experiencing sharing. The VCEA will be in positions of direct contact with the target group in order to help mainstream energy services and, increase access and uptake for the fuel poor.

Our role in ASSIST

VaasaETT led the Energy Advisors Network WP in order to develop and implement innovative support services for vulnerable consumers in various European countries. We were also a member of the project managing Committee, and led the implementation of all the project activities in Finland.

ASSIST highlights

The vulnerable consumers and fuel poverty report, as a result of a comprehensive consumer segmentation research project to understand the profile of the energy vulnerable in Europe can be accessed here:

This project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 754051.