ManagEnergy Expert Mission to FEWE

Day 1 – Introduction

The 3-days Expert Mission was led by Paul Kenny, CEO of the Tipperary Energy Agency (TEA, IE). The beneficiary of the Mission was Polish Foundation for Energy Efficiency (FEWE).  The initial introduction on Day 1 commenced with the Aims and objectives and an overview of the Energy Agency’s history and current status. For the senior management of the agency, the Mission aimed to develop new services and the required business model, specifically aimed at deep retrofitting and switching from coal for two separate customer types: Multi-family buildings, and single-family buildings.

In the second Session, expert Paul Kenny presented the ManagEnergy Expert Mission and the Tipperary Energy Agency to most of the FEWE team, detailing TEA’s relevant experience with single-family homes and the ELENA funding scheme which allowed to implement the SuperHomes initiative. It allowed the full team to understand the new potential models of businesses from the perspective of the local energy agencies. It also allowed the detailed understanding of the development of the host energy agency, and the key decision points that the agency made, and where this was relevant to FEWE.

The afternoon session focused on the development of the single-family retrofit service. The technical upgrades were a small feature of the discussion, however, the customer journey was focussed on, with the understanding of each main step and the role of the energy agency. The roles of contractors and suppliers were discussed in detail, with an understanding of certain obligations being put on the suppliers to ensure the contractors were trained, the equipment commissioned, the extended warranty and the troubleshooting service provided by the manufacturer. A detailed discussion was about the business model for the service, the costs, how best to use Elena funding and how to ensure the service is self-financing.

Day 2 – Stakeholder engagement

Day 2 started with a meeting in the Upper Silesian and Zagłębie Metropolis – the first metropolis established in Poland in 2018. The metropolis includes 41 cities and communes with a total area of 2.5 thousand sq km, where 2.3 million inhabitants live., The potential of ELENA funding for enhancing the rate of retrofit in municipalities (or cities and communes)  -owned multifamily dwellings was presented. A representative from the ELENA program presented the program and the expert Paul Kenny gave their overview of the program from a participant point of view.

The afternoon meeting was held with several Polish energy agencies and the ELENA representative. The local energy agencies received an overview of the sustainable tipp ELENA implantation of the Sustainable Energy Action Plan (SEAP) for the County of Tipperary.

Day 3 – Conclusions

Day 3 started with an overview of the hacks project. After this, the FEWE team discussed communications skills and the need for the organisation to improve what they do and bring on a marketing and communications professional to aid them to improve how they communicate with people and stakeholders. Some specific communication tools were discussed like social media, websites, promotional materials.

The final session on the 3^rd Day focussed on the summary of the new services, the market and skills analysis required to be completed in advance of these new services and the changes to the organisational structure required to deliver these services.