The role of the public sector in the mitigation of fuel poverty in Spain (2008–2019): modeling the contribution of the Bono Social de Electricidad

Abstract

With the economic growth of recent centuries, energy has become a structural good of prime necessity (Sovacool, 2011). The prevailing productive and economic model has made energy vulnerability, inequality and poverty a palpable reality in Spain. One of the instruments used to address this situation by the Government has been the implementation of the Bono Social de Electricidad (BSE) in 2009 based on a discount on the electricity tariff borne by families, a priori, with fewer resources. In 2017, the eligibility criteria were revised in such a way that the concept of vulnerable household was redefined. In this paper, through quasi-experimental methods and using the 2008–2011 and 2016–2019 longitudinal sample of the Living Conditions Survey, the effectiveness of this subsidy in reducing fuel poverty is evaluated. The results show that the BSE has not helped to mitigate it, identifying “new typologies of households” energetically poor