energy data innovation network ga n. 695916

D3.1 Report on the operation EDI-Net 07-04-2017 695916

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Energy Data Innovation Network

GA N. 695916

Deliverable Title D3.1 Report on the operation of the three partner public authorities,

including recommendations for roll out to other public authorities

Deliverable Lead: Leicester City Council

Related Work Package: WP3: Public Authority Operation

Related Task: T3.4 Feedback from operation of partner public authorities

Main Author(s): Darsheet Chauhan

Other Author(s): David Young, Carl Holland

Dissemination Level: Public

Due Submission Date: 31.03.2017

Actual Submission: 28.04.2017

Project Number 695916

Instrument: H2020-EE-2015-3-MarketUptake

Start Date of Project: 01.03.2016

Duration: 36 months

Abstract The operation of EDI-Net services in the three Partner Public Authorities is a good

indication of how the services (on line forum, dashboard and league table) can be

of benefit to public authorities. This report also highlights some key issues to assist

with the roll out to engaging other public authorities across Europe.

“This Project has received funding from the European Union’s H2020

research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 695916”


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Versioning and Contribution History

Version Date Modified by Modification reason

v.01 30/01/2017 Darsheet Chauhan First draft

v.02 14/02/2017 David Young Second draft

v.03 13/03/2017 Darsheet Chauhan Third draft

v.04 20/03/2017 Darsheet Chauhan Fourth draft

V.05 03/04/2017 Darsheet Chauhan Fifth draft

V0.6 06/04/2017 Darsheet Chauhan Final version for QA

V0.7 28/04/2017 Carl Holland Final version


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Table of Contents

Executive Summary ........................................................................................................................................... 4

1 Introduction ............................................................................................................................................... 5

2 Feedback from Partner Public Authorities using EDI-Net ......................................................................... 6

2.1 Preparation for Collecting Feedback ................................................................................................. 6

2.2 Track Energy Performance in Detail .................................................................................................. 7

2.3 Communicate Energy Performance in a User Friendly Manner ........................................................ 9

2.4 Facilitate Communication between Stakeholders ........................................................................... 12

2.5 Manage an Intervention Plan for Energy Efficiency ........................................................................ 15

2.6 Concluding remarks ......................................................................................................................... 16

3 Recommendations for rolling out EDI-Net to other Partner Public Authorities ..................................... 17

3.1 Which Public Authorities should join EDI-Net? ............................................................................... 18

3.2 Which aspects of EDI-Net should public authorities engage with?................................................. 19

3.3 Tips for campaigns ........................................................................................................................... 19

4 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................................... 21


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Executive Summary

The aim of this deliverable is to ensure that the support services developed and offered by EDI-Net meet the

needs of the first three Partner Public Authorities (PPA). The three PPAs, Catalonia (ES), Leicester (UK) and

Nuremberg (DE), have provided feedback which has been used to improve the initial services as well as

provide recommendations for rolling out the EDI-Net services to other public authorities across Europe.

Feedback was collected from the three PPAs at monthly teleconference calls, by email, by telephone, and

during the development of drafts of this report. The PPAs in turn collected their feedback locally by

telephone, by emails, face to face contact, and internal meetings. Feedback was sought for all four of the

user requirements described in D2.1 (track energy performance in detail, communicate energy performance

in a user friendly manner, facilitate communication between stakeholders, and manage an intervention plan

for energy efficiency).

The three PPAs had intended to work with officers from the four user groups – energy managers, decision

makers, finance professionals and building users. To date, only the energy managers and building users have

provided feedback. It was felt that the software was at a too early stage of development for engagement

with finance professionals or decision makers. The project will engage with finance professionals and decision

makers as the software progresses, but also as the correct opportunities arise. For example, it will be good

to engage with finance officers when budgets are being reviewed.

The report documents all observations – positive and negative - during the development process, testing and

application. All issues are documented to prepare the EDI-Net consortium for engagement with PPAs

recruited in the final two years of the project.


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1 Introduction

This report is the first of two deliverables that are part of work package three “Public Authority Operation”.

The aim of this work package is to ensure that the services developed and offered by EDI-Net meet the needs

of the first three Partner Public Authorities (PPAs). The feedback from Catalonia, Leicester and Nuremberg

has been used to improve the initial technical services as well as make recommendations for rolling out the

EDI-Net services to other Public Authorities across Europe.

EDI-Net has an important role to play in assisting public authorities to achieve energy efficiency and value for

money in public buildings, as well as contributing towards EU energy policy, specifically the 20-20-20 targets.

EDI-Net aims to increase awareness of energy issues, to reduce energy consumption and associated

emissions, and to foster ownership of energy efficient behaviour through a communication platform.

Achieving more energy efficient public buildings requires all users to act, whether they are direct building

users (e.g. building users, energy managers) or indirect users (e.g. decisions makers, finance professionals).

The three PPAs involved in the project to date are very different to each other in terms of size, geography

and structure. However, they represent the typical needs of public authorities for energy management

services and all three PPAs have the same four user groups – energy managers, decision makers, finance

professionals and building users. This allows for a synchronised application of the EDI-Net services in each

PPA, and uniform analysis of the general, as well as specific, needs of PPAs when engaging with energy data.

This report describes the initial feedback from the three PPAs on the four user requirements as well as setting

out key recommendations for rolling EDI-Net out to other PPAs across Europe. The feedback gathered during

the development of the EDI-Net services makes the EDI-Net solution very relevant and representative of PPA

needs across Europe. The report documents all observations – positive and negative - during the

development process, testing and application. All issues are documented to prepare the EDI-Net consortium

for engagement with PPAs recruited in the final two years of the project.


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2 Feedback from Partner Public Authorities using EDI-Net

Feedback has been collected from the three PPAs at monthly teleconference calls, by email, by telephone,

and during the development of drafts of this report. The PPAs in turn collected their feedback locally by

telephone, by emails, face to face contact, and internal meetings.

Feedback was sought for each of the user requirements met by the EDI-Net software. These are (from D2.1):

1) Track energy performance in detail

2) Communicate energy performance in a user friendly manner

3) Facilitate communication between stakeholders

4) Manage an intervention plan for energy efficiency

This chapter is divided into six sections, with four of the six (section 2.2 to section 2.5) representing each of

the four user requirements. In developing services to meet each of the user requirements, the four user types

(energy managers, decision makers, finance professionals and building users) were considered. To meet the

user requirements for each of the user types, it was identified that both public and private sections of the

services were required. These are highlighted in the sections.

The private sections are aimed at those with ‘heavy’ involvement in energy issues, and the project. Typically,

these users have login details, possibly administrator rights, and either expertise in energy management,

responsibilities on behalf of their building/department, or simply a personal interest. The public areas are for

those users with a ‘lighter’ involvement – no login is required, access is restricted to simply viewing rather

than participating (note: except forum, which ‘public’ users can use) and is aimed at those that only have

involvement with energy issues on behalf of their organisation sporadically, or general building users. It is

possible that the public pages may also be accessed by individuals from outside the PPAs/project.

The chapter begins with an overview of the methods employed to collect feedback, and finishes with

concluding remarks.

2.1 Preparation for Collecting Feedback

Whilst the EDI-Net services were being developed, discussions took place in preparation for collecting

feedback. Initial questions focussed on:

when to approach each user group?

what types of questions should be asked?

In order to gain quality feedback, the PPAs worked with specific users. Each PPA had a different strategy in

response to their local needs, local roll out, and local issues. For example, in Catalonia work focussed on the

buildings which were having energy efficiency measures installed. Because of this, the energy manager and


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finance professionals were identified as the most appropriate groups to work with. In Nuremberg, Energy

Officers were involved in the first phases of the roll out of the software and so feedback was collected from

them. In Leicester, the plan was to define groups (e.g. libraries, museums or the eco schools network), create

league tables for each group, and gather feedback from each group. The EDI-Net service is rolled out to the

building energy manager first, then to the building users. Across all three PPAs, it was felt that working with

small groups and/or specific individuals allowed for more reliable and accurate feedback. It was felt that

when feedback is requested through an impersonal platform, for example Survey Monkey, responses can be

lost by not being contextualised.

In addition to this, PPAs provided their initial expectations and comments at the kick off meeting (Leicester,

March 2016) and second project meeting in Frankfurt in (September, 2016).

2.2 Track Energy Performance in Detail

The ability to track energy performance in detail was available to PPAs in October 2016. Tracking energy

performance in detail allows users to view the current consumption for a meter against a coloured

background. The background has three colours determined by consumption values from the baseline period

(typically and ideally the previous 12 months) – red indicates the highest 25% of consumption values, green

indicates the lowest 25% of consumption values, and amber indicates the middle 50% of consumption values.

The black line indicates actual consumption (Figure 1).

Because of the technical knowledge required to be able to understand the complex energy performance

graphs, this function is mainly aimed at users with a high level of understanding of energy consumption

patterns, such as the energy managers. As such, feedback on this function is from the energy managers at

each of the three PPAs, from Project Management Board meetings, monthly teleconferences, and via the

forum. This function is available in both the public and private areas of the EDI-Net system.


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Figure 1: Tracking energy performance in detail

Feedback concerning tracking energy performance in detail was initially collected at the Frankfurt PMB in

September 2016. In this meeting, PPAs described their expectations on this aspect of the software following

on from a presentation from the technical team. Feedback included:

Data Frequency – the system should be set up to handle sub-hourly data initially, but also to be able

to handle monthly data at a later date

Historical Data – the system should compare consumption against a baseline that uses 12 months’

worth of data

Language – the system should be in English initially, but should also be available in German, Spanish

and Catalan

Accessibility – the system should be accessible from any device – desktop, laptop, tablet, mobile

phone

Specific functions – the system should have:

o the ability to filter data

o the ability to raise alarms for high/low consumption

o the ability to customise the view for the user

o the ability to customise league tables

o the ability to display consumption in different ways – kWh/m3/£€/

o the ability to develop, customize and export reports

o the ability to normalise costs/consumption


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Data Protection – the system should not be able to be used to track staff (i.e. when consumption

drops, the staff have left the building)

As the PPAs began to set up and use the graphs function, further feedback was provided to the technical

team. Several bugs were identified, such as:

issues with uploading data,

issues with viewing data,

issues with configuring devices,

issues with the way that data are displayed,

issues with location and weather data,

issues with data format,

issues with menu item names

These conversations are documented in the forum, and are both too numerous to cover in this deliverable

and on the whole only specific to each PPA to warrant any further explanation. However, as an example, a

brief summary of a resolved issues is provided below:

Location and weather data: A standardised format is created to determine the location of the

buildings (e.g. through postcodes) and used to select the nearest weather station where half-hourly

temperature data can be accessed.

Configuring devices: Virtual meters are the intermediate step between raw data and buildings.

Devices are collections of raw data, while virtual meters are the objects in which calculations are

performed.

Each issue is resolved.

2.3 Communicate Energy Performance in a User Friendly Manner

After the ability to track energy performance was made available, the technical team turned their attention

to communicating energy performance in a user friendly manner. As noted in section 2.2, tracking energy

performance in detail requires the user to have technical knowledge in order to understand the complex

graphs, thus making it only useable by a small number of people. The EDI-Net system automatically converts

the information in the complex graphs into very easy to understand smiley faces. If the consumption for a

virtual meter is lower than the expected level according to the baseline, the smiley face is green and smiling.

If the consumption for a virtual meter is higher than the expected level according to the baseline, the smiley

face is red and angry. There are 100 graduations of smiley face between best and worst performance. The

ability for energy managers to use such easily understandable communication methods takes the


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responsibility for energy management from a handful of professionals to the whole organisation, and

therefore useable by a large number of people.

As well as using smiley faces, the communication method was developed using league tables. Rather than

having all of the buildings for an organisation in a long list, the use of league tables allows for buildings to be

grouped into (smaller) coherent subsets. The buildings appear in the league table according to their

performance - the buildings at the top of the league table are those that are performing best against their

baseline, those at the bottom of the league table are performing worst against their baseline (Figure 2).

Figure 2: Communicating energy performance in a user friendly manner

The smiley faces and league tables communications function is available on the public facing sections of the

system. From a league table, users can view a specific building. For each building, the smiley face and detailed

graph with coloured consumption zones can be viewed (Figure 3). From the league table, users can also

directly access the associated discussion forum to post a message about that particular group of buildings,

or a specific building in the league table.


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Figure 3: Detailed energy consumption graph for a building

Some of the feedback from the Frankfurt PMB meeting for tracking energy performance is also relevant for

communicating energy performance in a user friendly manner; including:

Language – the system should be in English initially, but should also be available in German, Spanish

and Catalan

Accessibility – the system should be accessible from any device – desktop, laptop, tablet, mobile

phone

Specific functions – the system should have:

o the ability to customise the view for the user

o the ability to customise league tables (see below for further description)

o the ability to display consumption in different ways – kWh/m3/£€/

o the ability to make and export reports

o the ability to normalise costs/consumption

At the project kick off meeting in Leicester, and at the Frankfurt project management board meeting, the

PPAs stated that to take full advantage of the EDI-Net service they would need to be able to create and tailor

their own league tables. In the Smartspaces project, a single league table was created automatically by the

system, showing all the buildings for the public authority in a single long list. The list was not configurable at

all by the PPA. In EDI-Net, the league tables are created and configured by the PPA themselves, according to

their needs. League tables can be created whether the interest is comparing whole buildings, just comparing

buildings on one utility (i.e. electricity), or comparing departments.

As the PPAs began to set up and use the smiley faces and league tables, similar issues and bugs were found

as were found with the tracking energy performance graphs. Those specific to league tables, include:

issues with proportions of meters contributing to a virtual meter and therefore to a building

issues with editing labels


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issues with viewing data

issues with having too many smiley face graduations, therefore causing confusion

issues with being required to reload pages to update information

Additional attempts were made by the project team to use the forum to collect feedback from users (Figure

4).

Figure 4: Using the forum to get feedback from users on the league tables

The feedback from energy managers and building users at PPAs was that the league tables would be an

important part of the EDI-Net services as it allows a direct comparison between buildings and meters. Also,

and crucially, the league tables and smiley faces are available to anybody without any login credentials

required. It was commented that requiring users to create an account and login was likely to put occasional

users off from using the system and therefore reduce the potential for energy consumption reductions.

Also highlighted by more than one user was that having easy access to the forum allowed for users to engage

with each other across buildings to exchange ideas, engage in competition, and build networks of interested

professionals.

2.4 Facilitate Communication between Stakeholders

Communication between stakeholders in the EDI-Net project is via an online forum. The EDI-Net forum was

made available to the PPAs in September 2016. The forum can be found at: https://discourse.edi-net.eu/.

Figure 5 shows the home page of the forum. A full description of all of the functions and capabilities of the

forum software is available in D2.3.

https://discourse.edi-net.eu/


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Figure 5: Home page of the EDI-Net forum

Each PPA has its own private area on the forum which is only available to users employed by the PPA, and

assigned to the group by a moderator (Figure 6). PPAs were initially invited to identify relevant officers to

sign up to use the forum and to use it as a platform to communicate ideas and views on the project, test the

system and provide feedback. PPAs identified and approached key people through emails, meetings, face to

face contact, existing forums and groups to inform colleagues about the EDI-Net service and how it can be

useful for them.

Figure 6: EDI-Net forum showing the groups configured for each PPA

Since developing the forum, almost 100 topic boards have been established. Topics allow for conversation

threads to be grouped, making it easier to access information and navigate the forum. The topics are varied;

some are informative statements, whilst others are general open discussions. There are over 400 replies to

these posts, and almost 3,000 views.

There are approximately 60 registered users on the forum from the PPAs. Users have varied roles in their

organisations – some are EDI-Net project partners, energy managers, maintenance staff, sustainability staff,

building managers, students/researchers to name a few.


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Feedback was again provided by the project partners at the Frankfurt PMB, the kick off meeting in Leicester,

and at the monthly teleconference meetings. As the discourse forum is an ‘off the shelf’ product/service,

rather than a product/service that is developed by the project, feedback is focused on the methods to

maximise impact from using the forum, rather than configuring the software to meet the needs of the PPAs.

The forum has been the most difficult service to sell to prospective users. The following reasons were given:

it was seen as burdensome to be required to participate regularly on a forum, especially for the

energy managers and financial users who have other tasks to complete

users may be worried about how their engagement on the forum would be viewed by their

employers

posting comments on the forum was not seen as part of the traditional methods of working - users

felt that the forum was side stepping traditional methods of feedback e.g. reporting concerns to

their line manager, via email, or through a helpdesk

some energy officers were unwilling to engage with the forum as they sit together in the same office,

therefore they prefer face-to-face contact.

some officers may find having two different logins, one for the forum and one for the EDI-Net

service, cumbersome

some users felt that they did not have the appropriate audience/partners who would be able to use

their postings – therefore they may consider it not worthwhile to post anything, resulting in no

content

With these doubts in mind, the three PPAs and the EDI-Net project team have considered ways to overcome

these potential barriers. These included:

a targeted roll out of the EDI-Net services to specific user groups, one at a time

targeted use of the forum for specific individuals that will benefit most – such as those who may not

have the opportunity to engage in face-to-face contact (i.e. part time staff, staff in shared roles).

encouraging senior staff to use the forum to set an example of acceptability

encouraging EDI-Net project team members to post comments, to respond to posts from their

colleagues to demonstrate using the forum

maintain a healthy level of regular and engaging activity

provide a direct link from the league tables and public facing pages to the forum

Positive feedback was also received:

the forum is a dedicated place where users can engage with energy managers directly


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the forum is a good method to get a message out to a wide audience easily;

written comments cannot be forgotten - users can go back and review these after a period of time

In addition, it was highlighted that in order to effectively engage with users, an understanding of their needs

and how EDI-Net can assist them in their daily tasks was required. Some suggested that face-to-face contact

was the best way understand user needs of the forum, and that a live demonstration of the forum would be

beneficial. It was suggested that a face-to-face demonstration of the forum enables the users to see and

understand EDI-Net first hand, and affords them the opportunity to ask questions to the demonstrator.

It was perceived that decision makers and finance officers needed to be engaged at a precise moment as

they would be using EDI-Net for a specific purpose at a specific point in time, such as when making a decision

to allocate funds for energy efficient capital infrastructure. It was felt that these users could use the EDI-Net

forum to contact users and ask for advice on allocating funds, providing match funds for grant bids, and so

on.

Over the coming months, the PPAs will continue to engage with the four user groups to build up the activity

on the forum. It has been agreed that if there is an opportunity to publicise good news - for example, building

‘A’ reduces energy consumption/spend through a switch off campaign - it should be disseminated through

the forum. Such headlines make a positive image of the service and will encourage users to sign up and

participate.

2.5 Manage an Intervention Plan for Energy Efficiency

The ability to manage an intervention plan for energy efficiency was made available to PPAs in January 2017.

The system allows PPAs to record when an energy efficiency intervention was installed, at what cost, and

sums the savings since its installation. Feedback on the EEM tool was gathered via a questionnaire to

Catalonia. Although all three public authorities have access to the EEM tool, Catalonia have the most

experience in its use.

1) What is good about the EEM tool? What do you like about it?

The tool is quite clear in its interface and results, prompting a quick overview of the current situation of the

building in terms of EE. The simplicity is good, and also the possibility to deepen into the data for a more

detailed output.

2) What can be improved? What would you change about the EEM tool to make it better?

Maybe it could be simplified a bit more, and also split the “electricity” mark into it’s diverse components.

There also should be the chance to add more energy sources (gasoil, coal, RES, etc) into a single building, as

several of them can coincide.


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3) What has the EEM tool allowed the Generalitat to do? How have you used it to date? We have used it

until now mainly for consulting purposes, which is already a very good reason to have it. In this next step,

we are planning to start its use to assess the decision-making process for the new EE measures.

4) Have you shared the output from the tool with other staff from the Generalitat? What was their

reaction to the output? We’ve just done a few show-ups, so actually no chance on receiving a proper

response or feedback yet.

5) What are your plans for using the EEM tool in the future? As said before, the plan is to incorporate the

use of EEM in the following committee’s meetings, in order to start the use of the tool to assess the

procedures to implement EE measures.

6) Would you recommend using the EEM tool to other public authorities? How should they use the EEM

tool? We would certainly do recommend its use. The only burden is the need to upload and enter the

relevant data from buildings, so a threshold of data is achieved. The use for other PA would be similar to

ours.

7) Any other comments about the EEM tool? Not yet (there will be).

2.6 Concluding remarks

The operation of the EDI-Net services in the three PPAs has highlighted some important issues that will assist

with the roll out of EDI-Net to other public authorities. This feedback has been incorporated into the

development of the services, or used to understand how to maximise the impact from use of the services.

Although further feedback will not be collected formally for the purposes of this deliverable, as the project

develops and additional users from each of the categories use the services, and additional authorities are

recruited to the project, feedback will be provided to the EDI-Net project team in other work packages. For

example, feedback from partner public authorities to assess the potential impact of the project (task T2.6)

and feedback from users and staff during the mid-term evaluation to inform the success of capacity building

(task T7.4). This feedback will also be used in the same way – to develop the services, or to maximise the

impact from use of the services.


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3 Recommendations for rolling out EDI-Net to other Partner Public

Authorities

In this section, recommendations are made to public authorities that are recruited to further test the EDI-

Net services, based upon the experiences to date of the three partner public authorities. The newly recruited

public authorities will have the advantage of having all of the EDI-Net services available to them at the same

time, whereas the partner public authorities have had the services delivered at different times, and at

different stages of the development cycle. Additionally, the training materials that are being developed in

WP4 will also be available to newly recruited public authorities from the outset System set up

The initial set up for each PPA will be different, according to their existing systems for energy management.

The municipalities of Catalonia, Leicester and Nuremberg have all set up mechanisms for the transfer of their

energy data to the central system. In turn data are downloaded, analysed and made available for the PPA to

use. Each municipality had a different mechanism for collecting automatic meter reading data - the software

solution is capable of interrogating each of these databases. A good working relationship between the EDI-

Net system developers and staff at the recruited public authority (such as energy manager and IT

department) is required in order to link existing energy management software to the EDI-Net systems.

DMU and Leicester City Council experienced a very simple setup, due to the experience and relationships of

the project team from the Smartspaces project. For Nuremburg and Catalonia, the set up required a new and

tailored approach, developed specifically for them for this project. This is likely to be the case for many of

the recruited public authorities. Recruited public authorities should be aware of the requirement for staff

resources at this stage of the set up process.

Beyond this, the recruited public authorities will set up the EDI-Net system and services at their own pace,

and in their own time. As noted, materials are being developed to guide each public authority through this

process. These materials are under development, and there is no feedback or recommendations for using

these yet.

Despite the lack of current guidelines for the system set up, all three PPAs were able to successfully configure

their meters, buildings and league tables. The resulting system is entirely configurable by an administrator of

the PPA. Briefly, once data are in to the system from the PPAs existing energy management software the

system administrator must synchronise devices (meters). If devices (meters) are not synchronised, their data

are not available in the dashboard. Secondly, the system administrator must create a virtual meter. A virtual

meter can represent whatever the system administrator wishes, by assigning devices to it. A virtual meter

can have more than one component – for example, a virtual meter may be created for a single building to

sum consumption from several electricity meters, it can simply mirror the consumption of a single device

(meter), or it can represent a department. Thirdly, the system administrator must create a building. Virtual


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meters are then assigned to buildings. This allows for virtual meters which represent different utility types to

be grouped and displayed alongside each other- for example, three virtual meters displaying electricity, gas

and water. Finally, league tables are created and buildings are assigned to them. The league table displays

the buildings in order of performance against baseline. These instructions are covered in WP4, D4.3.

Detailed guidelines for the system set up based on the experience of the three PPAs are being developed as

part of the training material in WP4 (data acquisition and analysis). This material will be available from April

2017.

3.1 Which Public Authorities should join EDI-Net?

The EDI-Net service provides a set of powerful energy analysis tools for public authorities. Across Europe,

many public authorities are working to reduce their energy consumption and would benefit from using the

EDI-Net services. Often schemes for energy efficiency are top down e.g. high level policies, allocating funding

for schemes, or bottom up e.g. behaviour change campaigns or energy champion schemes. Few schemes

fully engage users from across the whole organisation, giving them an opportunity to play an active part in

an organisation’s attempts to reduce energy consumption. EDI-Net does this.

The first requirement is for public authorities to have sub-hourly energy data. Without this, the authority is

unable to take full advantage of the software. The authority does not need sub-hourly data for all of its

buildings at the outset, but should have it available for a good proportion of its buildings.

Secondly, it would be beneficial if authorities have a political/public commitment to reducing energy

consumption. Engaging with politicians and decision makers is made easier if an authority has made such a

commitment. EDI-Net will assist such authorities to meet their commitments.

Thirdly, EDI-Net can assist public authorities that already have existing energy management software. The

EDI-Net services will compliment existing systems to allow an authority to engage with all users. Typically,

energy management systems are aimed only at energy managers whereas EDI-Net is aimed at the whole

organisation.

Finally, authorities should have adequate human resources available. Staff will be required to organise the

data sharing, learn how to use the services and also roll out the services to their colleagues. The initial period

will be the most resource intensive period. Either a few energy champions to support and roll out the service

internally teaching colleagues how to use the services but also being able to react to posts to seed the forum

would be ideal.

There are not restrictions as to which type or size of public authority should engage with EDI-Net. During the

initial recruitment of new public authorities in the UK, a range of authorities have expressed an interest to


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trial EDI-Net services; from small district councils, to county councils, to public health organisations. This

demonstrates that EDI-Net has an appeal to all types of public authority.

3.2 Which aspects of EDI-Net should public authorities engage with?

Each recruited public authority will be encouraged to use all of the EDI-Net services. Each public authority

will have specific requirements of EDI-Net, according to their own needs. The use of each of the services will

therefore vary from one public authority to another. There will be no undue pressure placed on any of the

recruited public authorities to use any of the services. Equally, if it becomes apparent that public authorities

require more from the EDI-Net services, they can be adapted and further developed, as necessary.

3.3 Tips for campaigns

The success of EDI-Net will depend upon users being made aware of the existence of the software and

engaged in the project. A plan of how to engage with users in order to maximise the effect of EDI-Net is

required at each public authority. Alongside the training materials developed in WP4 are instructions for

running campaigns in order to publicise EDI-Net and improve take up.

A tailored approach for engaging with each of the four user groups is required. In order to engage with the

different user groups, an awareness of the needs of the user and how they can use the EDI-Net services to

meet their needs is required. For example, a finance professional would find it beneficial to see a monetary

value against the reductions in energy consumption. A typical building user, such as staff, would find an easy

interpretation of the data helpful. The partner public authorities found that the EDI-Net services will only

work if people find them relevant and useful.

A healthy volume of contact with users is required on the forum. This will help keep EDI-Net current. Success

stories should be shared widely so that people are aware of the value of the systems and this will help foster

greater engagement. The success of the forum is largely the responsibility of each PPA – regular, interesting

topics and conversations need to happen in order to perpetuate interest. Posts will need to be replied to in

a timely manner to increase effectiveness.

A key point is that simply informing users that the service exists is not sufficient. During the initial stages of

roll out, the software needs to be presented by a credible and recognised person in the authority who can

showcase the benefits of the solution. An actual demonstration using live data is crucial. This initial

engagement needs to be followed up with regular contact through the forum (Figure 7), and emails, to

encourage people to engage with the software.


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Figure 7: EDI-Net system generated email alerting the user to new posts on the forum


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4 Conclusion

This deliverable has documented the experience of the three partner public authorities using the EDI-Net

systems. Recommendations have been made to improve the existing systems in order for the recruited public

authorities to maximise their usage of the tools. Recommendations have also been made for these public

authorities for setting up their organisation, which public authorities should join EDI-Net, and how public

authorities should engage with EDI-Net.

The EDI-Net system provides the existing project partners with added value, and is ready to be rolled out to

more local authorities.

energy data innovation network ga n. 695916

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