Empowering energy users as a driver of change

Dr. STOYAN DANOV

Barcelona, 19 of May 2015

Objectives:• Provide energy consumers with useful information

permitting them to reduce their energy costs• Use the already available consumption data at the

energy utilities• Develop low-cost energy services viable for offering

at large scale in the residential sector• Increase the user awareness and change the

behavioural attitudes towards energy saving

Scope: • 344.000 customers involved• 270.000 customers receiving services during 12 months

Budget: • Total cost: ~2M€ • Subvention EU: ~1,5M€ (75%)

Consortium: • 12 participants from 5 EU countries (At, Be, Es, Fr, It)• 4 utility companies (Austria, Spain, France, Italy)• Well-balanced team of R&D specialists and social agents

Time frame: • 30 months (4/2013 – 10/2015)

EMPOWERING project

Pilot sites

• Over 270 000 consumers receiving services during 1 year• Evaluation of energy saving and consumer satisfaction

EMPOWERING provides the services through the energy utilities:

• Report complementary to the energy bill

• Online tools offering detailed consumption insight

simple evolution of consumption, doesn’t tell you if this is little or lot

Common state of the information to the user actually

Monthly comparative with similar and efficient customers

Comparative of the consumption’s evolution with respect to the previous year and its dependence on the external temperature

Approximate disaggregation of consumption by uses

After EMPOWERING …

The potential of smart meters expands enormously the possibilities:• Alarms for abnormal consumption• Detecting high baseline and stand-by consumption• Personalised saving tips• Useful tools for pro-active users:

o Consumption disaggregationo Evaluation of building envelopeo Home energy audit & self assessment o Energy certification

The solution

• Big data architecture

• Central analytic engine

• Modular, flexible and scalable solution

• User privacy guaranteed by design

• 100% open source

Results from surveys over the services

High degree of service acceptance by part of the users

Pending final evaluation

Lessons learned Reaching the user:• Energy consumers are usually not pro-active• When possible, services should be offered without additional

registration (“opt-out” option is preferred)• Delivering of paper report increases the service reach

Effectiveness of the services:• The proper presentation of the information is crutial – should be

simple, easy to understand, actionable • Usability testing with a sample of users is important for achieving

effective design

Thank you very much!Dr. Stoyan Danovsdanov@cimne.upc.eduCoordinator of EMPOWERINGwww.iee-empowering.eu

CIMNE - Building Energy and Environment Groupwww.beegroup-cimne.comwww.cimne.com/beegroup