The document summarizes the EMPOWERING energy project which aims to empower energy consumers by providing useful consumption information from utilities to help users reduce costs and change energy saving behaviors. The project involved over 344,000 utility customers across 5 EU countries. Services included reports with consumption comparisons to similar users and past usage. The goals were to evaluate energy savings and user satisfaction over the 30 month, 2 million Euro project funded mostly by the EU. Lessons showed that services must be easy to understand and opt-out to effectively reach users and change energy habits.

1. Empowering energy users
as a driver of change
Dr. STOYAN DANOV
Barcelona, 19 of May 2015

2. 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

3. 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

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

5. EMPOWERING provides the
services through the energy
utilities:
• Report complementary to the
energy bill
• Online tools offering detailed
consumption insight

6. simple evolution of consumption, doesn’t tell
you if this is little or lot
Common state of the information to the user actually

7. 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 …

8. 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 disaggregation
o Evaluation of building envelope
o Home energy audit & self assessment
o Energy certification

9. The solution
• Big data architecture
• Central analytic engine
• Modular, flexible and
scalable solution
• User privacy
guaranteed by design
• 100% open source

10. Results from surveys over the services
High degree of service acceptance
by part of the users
Pending final evaluation

11. 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

12. Thank you very much!
Dr. Stoyan Danov
sdanov@cimne.upc.edu
Coordinator of EMPOWERING
www.iee-empowering.eu
CIMNE - Building Energy and Environment Group
www.beegroup-cimne.com
www.cimne.com/beegroup