A framework for measuring stakeholder engagement in energy transitions projects

Abstract

Measuring stakeholder engagement in energy projects is fundamental to identify most promising engagement strategies, to track project engagement progress, report project performance and learn how to improve the performance (Pauwels et al., 2009). Only by measuring we will gather a sound stock of evidence of the effectiveness of engagement strategies and a granular understanding of in which domains and in which stages they seem to work better (Turban et al., 2016). However, there are still missing comprehensive frameworks that can help practitioners and researchers in this endeavour.Against this backdrop, this presentation outlines the framework elaborated by a consortium of partners under the Bridge Consumer and Citizen Engagement Working Group. We identified a collection of indicators of engagement of different user groups, namely end-users, energy companies, energy communities or citizens. In addition to indicators, the framework also details its characteristics (objectivesubjective, foreground- or background data, etc.) and procedures to measure them.The framework was elaborated in different rounds using a combination of co-creation meetings and DELPHI approach to eventually identify 61 indicators that meet the conditions of validity, sensitivity and specificity, methodologically sound, easily interpretable, consistent over time and timely. The indicators were classified along the stages of change, inspired by stage models such as the community engagement model (Angelakoglou et al., 2019; Hemment et al., 2016), the transtheoretical behavior change model (Prochaska et al., 1997), and the design thinking process (Buijs, 2012). Specifically, four stages were considered: Awareness creation (developing a vision, raising awareness, including onboarding and recruitment), Design (of products, services, devices or solutions), Implementation (comprising the arrangement of resources, a business plan, marketing plan and sales plan; the creation of a customer base; and the evaluation of product serviceexperienceinterventionsolution) and Exploitation (concerns tasks such as operation and maintenance, keeping engagement high, scaling up or expansion, replication and commercialisation).The presentation will depict the framework, provide a guided tutorial to apply it and conclude with recommendations based on the experiences of the partner when measuring engagement. This presentation will be of interest for fundinga agencies seeking measures as objective and standardized as possible to monitor project developments and for project partners in charge of measurement and impact reporting.