Client: Naomh Breandán Credit Union Ltd.
EnvEcon Decision Support was commissioned to provide Small Area (SA) level analytics to inform investment and targeting decisions in the built environment for the Sustainable Energy West (SEW) area. Using our Home-Heating Poverty Risk Index (HH-EPRI), we conducted a spatial analysis of energy poverty risk in SEW at the SA level. The HH-EPRI is one part of our broader built environment decision support analytical suite, BUIL-DS.
Comprising three sub-indices—heating requirements, building requirements, and household characteristics—the HH-EPRI addresses distinct elements of energy poverty risk. These three sub-indices are integrated and weighted to generate the overall HH-EPRI. The final HH-EPRI, mapped at the SA level, ranges from 1 (low energy poverty risk) to 9 (high energy poverty risk). Individual sub-index analyses can also be undertaken with this system.
The HH-EPRI, along with the comprehensive BUIL-DS system, offers the capability for scenario modelling to assess intervention impacts on energy use, energy savings, and climate and air emissions. Potential scenario analysis includes:
- Modelling the impact of deploying heat pumps and fabric retrofit actions in specific areas, considering the areas where action is most urgent.
- Identifying local home typologies from which the greatest financial and/or environmental benefits of retrofit can be realised, supporting the development of target ‘clusters’ of work.
- Testing the efficacy of existing policies in relation to heat pump deployment and fabric energy efficiency rollout across the domains of energy savings, emissions impacts, home heating poverty risk, household cost benefits, and securing a ‘Just Transition’.
- Assessing the needs of the construction sector so that in-region and local capacity to implement retrofit targets can be assessed and developed.
