Heating allowance even for firewood

Significantly increased this year will be the maximum amount of the heating allowance and will be allocated to more households since it will now be subsidized apart from heating oil and natural gas and LPG, while for pellets and firewood the subsidy will be granted only in settlements under 2,500 residents.

In particular, based on the announcements of Deputy Finance Minister Theodore Skylakakis the maximum amount of the heating allowance is expected to increase to 600 euros from 350 euros that was during last winter while the minimum amount of the allowance will remain unchanged at 80 euros. At the same time, in addition to the increase in the allowance and the new categories of fuel that will be subsidised, the system of calculating the allowance to beneficiaries is also changing this year.

The Ministry of Finance will implement a new system based on a study by the National Meteorological Service, which divided Greece into 200,000 squares (750m x 750m), in order to capture the climatic and geographical parameters as accurately as possible. This will also result in the heating needs, which differ from region to region depending on altitude, distance from the sea and other parameters. For each block there will be a coefficient which will be multiplied by the maximum allowance of 600 euros and will result in the allowance to which each household is entitled. That is why the allowance will be different in each town, village and settlement and the coefficients will be completely different even within the same municipality.

In particular, based on the design and following international standards, as highlighted during the presentation of the new system, the methodology for estimating heating needs is based on the use of Heating Degree-days. According to the standards, a building needs heating when the average temperature is below the base temperature, which is set at 15.5˚. For each degree of average daily temperature below 15.5˚ we have one degree-days. Therefore, if an area's average temperature is 10˚, 5.5 heating rating days are needed.

Using air temperature measurements at 60 weather stations of the National Weather Service (EMY) over a period of 30 years, the average number of calorimeters per year was calculated and then, using a digital terrain model, the correlation of the calorimeters with a series of geophysical parameters (e.g. latitude, altitude, radiation, orientation, slope of the terrain, distance from the sea) was studied. The correlation was satisfactorily high (>90%), thus allowing the estimation of heating needs by region.

In this analysis, the Greek territory was divided into 200,000 blocks of 750m x 750m, in which the heating calorimeters were estimated. According to the results of this methodology, in the southern coastal areas the calorimeters start from about 210 per year, in the northern mountainous areas they reach 2,600 for an altitude of 1,500 m and exceed 3,000 for very mountainous areas.

Based on this data, the allowance will be different in each town, village and settlement as there will now be different coefficients based on the scores. Example: in Karpathos, in a settlement on the sea there are 257 and in the mountains 1,401, while in Pieria there is a settlement with 1,220 points and a settlement with 3,873 points in the same municipality.
The minimum allowance will remain the same, regardless of the rating, while the maximum will be adjusted proportionally, exceeding the old maximum allowance by far in mountainous settlements with high heating needs.

During the presentation of the new system by the Deputy Minister of Finance, Theodoros Skylakakis and the director of services of EMY Manolis Anandradrastakis , the former said that «the money of the heating allowance will be given with much greater fairness and efficiency, since the allowance will be based on the heating hours that, on average, really need on an annual basis each household and will be different depending on the specific meteorological and climatic conditions that exist in each village and neighborhood.».
The total amount of the heating allowance to be allocated to households this year will be increased to between €85-94 million.