Biography:
Roberto Barrella was born in Rome in 1992. He obtained a Bachelor's Degree in Energy Engineering in 2015 and a Master's degree in Energy Engineering in 2018, both from Università degli Studi di Roma La Sapienza. He developed his Master's thesis at Universidad Carlos III de Madrid. In July 2022 he defended his PhD thesis proposing an integrated approach to energy poverty, developed at Comillas Pontifical University. During his PhD, he carried out an international exchange at the Center for Environmental and Sustainability Research (CENSE), Universidade NOVA de Lisboa (Portugal), where he worked with the team coordinating the Energy Poverty Advisory Hub (EPAH). He works as a Research Assistant Professor at the Institute for Research in Technology (IIT). Moreover, he is the coordinator of the Engineering area of the Chair of Energy and Poverty (Comillas-ICAI). His teaching activities are mainly developed in the Mechanical Engineering and Industrial Organisation Departments of Comillas-ICAI.
Areas of interest:
Energy poverty, Residential Energy Demand, Energy Efficiency, HVAC systems, Energy Policy, Just energy transition, Climate change.
Experience:
09/2017 - 03/2018. Erasmus program, Madrid, Spain. He attended three courses and worked on his Master Thesis at the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid.
04/2008 – present. Volunteer, Community of Sant'Egidio. For more than a decade, he has been a volunteer of the Community of Sant'Egidio, which provides services for children, elderly and homeless people. He participated in projects with this association in four different places: at an elderly home, at a children’s home, at Largo Passamonti in Rome and in Blantyre, Malawi.
09/2000 - 09/2012. Boy’s Scout, Rome, Italy. In 12 years of Scouting, he has developed skills of adaptation and resolution of concrete problems. Outstanding experiences: hiking in Italy, volunteering in Lourdes, participating in the World Youth Day (WYD) in Madrid, and kayaking from Treviso to Venice.
Skills:
Proficiency in Microsoft Office tools (Word, Excel, Powerpoint), advanced in EES and R, basic knowledge of Matlab, Mathcad, AutoCAD, Ecotect, Radiance, Climate Consultant.
Italian (Native), Spanish (Proficiency), English (Advanced), Portuguese (Basic).
Energy demand modeling.
Energy poverty indicators’ analysis.
HVAC systems’ feasibility analysis.
Thermodynamics and Fluid dynamics lab research and knowledge.
Basic electrical lab knowledge.
Designing, construction and testing of energy conversion systems.
Designing of sustainable buildings.
Current research interests:
Bottom-up models of HVAC demand in the residential sector.
Bottom-up models for domestic electricity consumption.
Study of future scenarios of household energy demand and expenditure.
Analysis of the techno-economic feasibility of heat pumps in the residential sector.
Strategies for energy retrofitting of buildings: active and passive measures.Critical review of energy poverty indicators.
Analysis and proposal of measures to combat energy poverty in Europe.
Just green transition.
Application of XAI to energy poverty studies.
R. Barrella, P. Palma, J.P. Gouveia, J.C. Romero, E.M. Arenas, J.I. Linares, "Toward an enhanced policy and action framework to address energy poverty in the Iberian Peninsula: An exploratory analysis", Heliyon, Vol. 11, nº. 10, pp. e43414, May 2025. [Online: May 2025] doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2025.e43414
JCR-JIF: 3,600 Q1 (2024) - SJR: 0,739 Q1 (2025); 0,739 Q1 (2025) 
R. Barrella, S. Mora Rosado, J.C. Romero, "The 2022 energy and inflationary crises: Data, experiences and opinions of Spanish energy vulnerable households", Energy Research & Social Science, Vol. 121, pp. 103961, March 2025. [Online: February 2025] doi: 10.1016/j.erss.2025.103961
JCR-JIF: 7,200 Q1 (2025); - SJR: 2,432 Q1 (2025); R. Barrella, J.I. Linares, J.C. Romero, E.M. Arenas, "Evaluating the impact of energy efficiency strategies on households’ energy affordability: a Spanish case study", Energy and Buildings, Vol. 295, pp. 113289, September 2023. [Online: June 2023] doi: 10.1016/j.enbuild.2023.113289
JCR-JIF: 6,600 Q1 (2023); 8,000 Q1 (2025) - SJR: 1,632 Q1 (2023); 1,622 Q1 (2025) R. Barrella, J.C. Romero, J.I. Linares, E.M. Arenas, M. Asín, E. Centeno, "The dark side of energy poverty: who is underconsuming in Spain and why?", Energy Research & Social Science, Vol. 86, pp. 102428, April 2022. [Online: December 2021] doi: 10.1016/j.erss.2021.102428
JCR-JIF: 6,700 Q1 (2022); 7,200 Q1 (2025) - SJR: 2,171 Q1 (2022); 2,432 Q1 (2025) R. Barrella, J.I. Linares, J.C. Romero, E.M. Arenas, E. Centeno, "Does cash money solve energy poverty? Assessing the impact of household heating allowances in Spain", Energy Research & Social Science, Vol. 80, pp. 102216, October 2021. [Online: August 2021] doi: 10.1016/j.erss.2021.102216
JCR-JIF: 8,514 Q1 (2021); 7,200 Q1 (2025) - SJR: 2,551 Q1 (2021); 2,432 Q1 (2025) P. Heller, T. Schittekatte, R. Barrella, P. Mastropietro, C. Batlle, "European and US approaches to energy poverty: Classifying and evaluating design strategies", Utilities Policy, Vol. 97, pp. 102059, December 2025. [Online: September 2025] doi: 10.1016/j.jup.2025.102059
JCR-JIF: 4,900 Q2 (2025); - SJR: 1,073 Q1 (2025); R. Barrella, P. Palma, J.P. Gouveia, J.C. Romero, E.M. Arenas, J.I. Linares, "Toward an enhanced policy and action framework to address energy poverty in the Iberian Peninsula: An exploratory analysis", Heliyon, Vol. 11, nº. 10, pp. e43414, May 2025. [Online: May 2025] doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2025.e43414
JCR-JIF: 3,600 Q1 (2024) - SJR: 0,739 Q1 (2025); 0,739 Q1 (2025) R. Barrella, S. Mora Rosado, J.C. Romero, "The 2022 energy and inflationary crises: Data, experiences and opinions of Spanish energy vulnerable households", Energy Research & Social Science, Vol. 121, pp. 103961, March 2025. [Online: February 2025] doi: 10.1016/j.erss.2025.103961
JCR-JIF: 7,200 Q1 (2025); - SJR: 2,432 Q1 (2025); L. Herding, M. Pérez-Bravo, R. Barrella, R. Cossent, M. Rivier, "Large-scale estimation of electricity distribution grid reinforcement requirements for the energy transition – A 2030 Spanish case study", Energy Reports, Vol. 12, pp. 5432 - 5444, December 2024. [Online: November 2024] doi: 10.1016/j.egyr.2024.11.026
JCR-JIF: 5,100 Q2 (2024); 6,600 Q2 (2025) - SJR: 1,172 Q1 (2024); 1,197 Q1 (2025) P. Palma, R. Barrella, J.P. Gouveia, J.C. Romero, "Comparative analysis of energy poverty definition and measurement in Portugal and Spain", Utilities Policy, Vol. 90, pp. 101770, October 2024. [Online: June 2024] doi: 10.1016/j.jup.2024.101770
JCR-JIF: 4,400 Q2 (2024); 4,900 Q2 (2025) - SJR: 0,997 Q1 (2024); 1,073 Q1 (2025) D. Dokupilová, A. Stojilovska, P. Palma, J.P. Gouveia, E.G. Paschalidou, R. Barrella, M. Feenstra, A. Horta, C. Sánchez-Guevara, J. Kádár, M. Tesanovic, N.S. Thomaidis, T.A. Hamed, "Exploring energy poverty in urban and rural contexts in the era of climate change: a comparative analysis of European countries and Israel", Energies, Vol. 17, nº. 12, pp. 2939, June 2024. [Online: June 2024] doi: 10.3390/en17122939
JCR-JIF: 3,200 Q3 (2024); 3,900 Q3 (2025) - SJR: 0,713 Q1 (2024); 0,748 Q1 (2025)
JCR-JIF: 1,900 Q2 (2024); - SJR: 0,639 Q2 (2024);
JCR-JIF: 4,000 Q2 (2024); 3,400 Q2 (2025) - SJR: 0,869 Q2 (2024); 0,848 Q2 (2025) R. Barrella, J.C. Romero, A. Laguillo, E. Sevilla, "Assessing the impact of shallow renovation on energy poverty: a primary data study", Energies, Vol. 16, nº. 21, pp. 7237, November 2023. [Online: October 2023] doi: 10.3390/en16217237
JCR-JIF: 3,000 Q3 (2023); 3,900 Q3 (2025) - SJR: 0,651 Q1 (2023); 0,748 Q1 (2025) R. Barrella, J.I. Linares, J.C. Romero, E.M. Arenas, "Evaluating the impact of energy efficiency strategies on households’ energy affordability: a Spanish case study", Energy and Buildings, Vol. 295, pp. 113289, September 2023. [Online: June 2023] doi: 10.1016/j.enbuild.2023.113289
JCR-JIF: 6,600 Q1 (2023); 8,000 Q1 (2025) - SJR: 1,632 Q1 (2023); 1,622 Q1 (2025) J.C. Romero, R. Barrella, E. Centeno, "Understanding the impact of COVID-19 lockdown on energy poverty in Spain", Energy Efficiency, Vol. 16, nº. 6, pp. 56, August 2023. [Online: June 2023] doi: 10.1007/s12053-023-10141-5
JCR-JIF: 3,200 Q2 (2023); 3,400 Q2 (2025) - SJR: 0,734 Q2 (2023); 0,848 Q2 (2025) R. Barrella, J.C. Romero, L. Mariño, "Proposing a novel minimum income standard approach to energy poverty assessment: a European case study", Sustainability, Vol. 14, nº. 23, pp. 15526, December 2022. [Online: November 2022] doi: 10.3390/su142315526
JCR-JIF: 3,900 Q2 (2022); 4,100 Q2 (2025) - SJR: 0,664 Q1 (2022); 0,750 Q1 (2025) R. Barrella, J.C. Romero, J.I. Linares, E.M. Arenas, M. Asín, E. Centeno, "The dark side of energy poverty: who is underconsuming in Spain and why?", Energy Research & Social Science, Vol. 86, pp. 102428, April 2022. [Online: December 2021] doi: 10.1016/j.erss.2021.102428
JCR-JIF: 6,700 Q1 (2022); 7,200 Q1 (2025) - SJR: 2,171 Q1 (2022); 2,432 Q1 (2025) R. Barrella, J.I. Linares, J.C. Romero, E.M. Arenas, E. Centeno, "Does cash money solve energy poverty? Assessing the impact of household heating allowances in Spain", Energy Research & Social Science, Vol. 80, pp. 102216, October 2021. [Online: August 2021] doi: 10.1016/j.erss.2021.102216
JCR-JIF: 8,514 Q1 (2021); 7,200 Q1 (2025) - SJR: 2,551 Q1 (2021); 2,432 Q1 (2025) R. Castaño-Rosa, R. Barrella, C. Sánchez-Guevara, R. Barbosa, I. Kyprianou, E.G. Paschalidou, N.S. Thomaidis, D. Dokupilová, J.P. Gouveia, J. Kádár, T.A. Hamed, P. Palma, "Cooling degree models and future energy demand in the residential sector. A seven-country case study", Sustainability, Vol. 13, nº. 5, pp. 2987, March 2021. [Online: March 2021] doi: 10.3390/su13052987
JCR-JIF: 3,889 Q2 (2021); 4,100 Q2 (2025) - SJR: 0,664 Q1 (2021); 0,750 Q1 (2025) R. Barrella, I. Priego, J.I. Linares, E.M. Arenas, J.C. Romero, E. Centeno, "Feasibility study of a centralised electrically driven air source heat pump water heater to face energy poverty in block dwellings in Madrid (Spain)", Energies, Vol. 13, nº. 11, pp. 2723, June 2020. [Online: May 2020] doi: 10.3390/en13112723
JCR-JIF: 3,004 Q3 (2020); 3,900 Q3 (2025) - SJR: 0,598 Q2 (2020); 0,748 Q1 (2025) 
