According to a 2023 survey, three-quarters of consumers are confused by “nightmare” energy bills. A lack of simplified language leads many to feel stress when opening their energy bills, and further frustration when trying to understand fluctuating costs. Clear, concise energy literacy is key, but who is responsible for fostering it and how can we ensure that accurate information is passed on?
Charmaine Coutinho, Head of Client Training at Delta-EE, and Malgorzata Wiatros-Motyka, Senior Electricity Analyst at Ember, sat down with gridX to try to answer these questions.
Charmaine Coutinho said, “I think there is a need to understand that you might not know everything. Your area of work might just be thinking in that silo. So, to understand that the end system is connected—that doesn't seem relevant at first.” She went on to explain that if someone works in the EV sector, they might not think that they need to know about gas boilers, but gas boilers are actually changing as much as EVs. “We're gonna roll out electrified heating more widely across Europe,” she said. “And actually that electrified heating can come into conflict or it can complement the EV charging in the home.”
Malgorzata Wiatros-Motyka had this is say: “We don’t know everything here, but we have many reasons to be hopeful and we should focus on solutions. We have many technologies now. We’ve seen people installing more PVs on the rooftop, for example. We have more solutions now than we had before and there is a reason to be hopeful. Just focus on what we can do and try to change, even if you don’t know exactly everything what you would like to know.”
“Think beyond and explore beyond your immediate passion. But also just keep learning. Keep reading,” said Charmaine.
