Just four months after launching the E-LAR program to combat energy poverty and improve efficiency, the Government presented this Tuesday, December 2, its second edition, which seeks to compensate for the rapid exhaustion of the initiative’s funds, which left out many potential eligible candidates. In this new version, E-LAR 2, which consists of assigning vouchers to finance the exchange of gas equipment for electric ones, it is investing in an increase in the allocation. This doubles to 60.8 million euros, announced the Ministry of Environment and Energy.
In addition to the budget reinforcement, “there is a new eligible expense: the removal of equipment and the sealing of gas pipes for beneficiaries of the Social Electricity Tariff”. At issue is the allocation of 50 euros to pay for the sealing of gas pipes when removing old equipment, ensuring the safety of the installation.
According to this new notice, published this Tuesday by the Climate Agency, beneficiaries can apply from the 11th of December, and from the 4th, already qualified suppliers must express an interest in remaining in the E-LAR Program; If they do not do so, they are considered to want to leave the supplier network.
Energy efficiency rules remain in place: new equipment must comply with energy class A or higher, with exceptions already foreseen — electric hobs without a minimum class and water heaters above 30 liters with class B or higher.
The transversal objective of this program is to combat energy poverty together with improving the country’s energy efficiency as a whole and replacing gas equipment with electric ones, also as a way of decarbonizing consumption and stopping global warming.
Unlike the previous edition in which the share allocated to the poorest was larger, this time consumers are on equal terms with regard to the allocated pie, although not in terms of the percentage of contribution for each piece of equipment. There will be 30.4 million euros for beneficiaries of the Social Electricity Tariff (TSEE) and 30.4 million for other natural persons.
It was precisely in the middle class that there was greater demand in the previous edition. Despite more than 21 thousand applications being approved, only around 7 thousand were used vouchers. And of these, the majority went to middle class consumers (4192) against 3063 for social energy tariff consumers.
“The country has seen the effectiveness of its policies recognized and the reinforcement of E-LAR will make it possible to further accelerate these results”, said the Minister of Environment and Energy, Maria da Graça Carvalho regarding the launch of E-LAR 2. “Portugal took important steps in the last year and saw the effectiveness of measures to combat energy poverty recognized by the European Commission. The financial reinforcement of E-LAR appears precisely to accelerate these results”. The launch of this 2nd phase takes place a few days after the European Commission praised Portugal for the effectiveness of its policies to combat energy poverty, highlighting its positive impacts on reducing the vulnerability of families and promoting more efficient equipment.