Romania is part of European research project on optimizing energy consumption in households

Romania is one of the six states that joined the EU-funded ENCHANT research project that aims to support the energy transition by understanding the needs and behaviour of electricity consumption in European households. It also tests which strategy works best to motivate to save energy and which information households need.

The other five participating countries are Norway, Germany, Austria, Italy, and Türkiye.

Romanian energy consumers can participate in the campaign for six weeks starting Thursday, May 4. At the national level, the project is implemented by the Center for the Study of Democracy, the initiator of the Romanian Energy Poverty Observatory (ORSE), together with the Babeș-Bolyai University, the City Hall and the Local Council of Cluj-Napoca and the company Electrica Furnizare.

The information collected about consumption will be modelled with the help of an innovative AI-based data interpretation system to produce public policy scenarios adapted to the reality on the ground and the diversity of situations. The data is collected through a method called Randomized Controlled Trial (RCT) and aims at the voluntary participation of households in experimental groups that test consumption behaviours.

The large-scale effort targets millions of European citizens, according to the press release from ORSE.

"ENCHANT is a research project that tries to find out what could help Romanians to reduce their household energy consumption and what are the limits of this need," said Anca Sinea, researcher of the Babeș-Bolyai University, coordinator of ORSE and the campaign implemented in Romania.

She also explained the benefits for Romanian consumers participating in this campaign: "In addition to the interesting information they can get about their own energy consumption, they will receive suggestions and recommendations on how they can save more energy in their home […]. In addition, based on the findings we will reach by aggregating all the data received from consumers, they will have the opportunity to influence European and national policies by proposing public policy scenarios that are much more favourable to the situation of consumers."

The campaign to save electricity for households in Romania takes place through the ENCHANT platform - here.

Consumers voluntarily enrolled on the project's platform are asked to answer a set of questions about their own electricity consumption to help researchers better understand their household's consumption pattern. Then, for six weeks, they will report their electricity consumption on a weekly basis, which can be obtained either from the electricity meter installed in the home or from the dedicated app for those with a smart meter.