News
As part of HI-ACT’s work, our team at Newcastle University are developing a digital tool to help energy planners generate and use local qualitative insights when making decisions about proposed energy system changes, such as new infrastructure, market reforms, and flexible demand schemes. The tool is designed to support public engagement and help planners understand how people expect these changes to affect them, their communities, and their local areas.
This kind of qualitative, place-specific insight is often collected through engagement activities, but it can be challenging to interpret and use it alongside technical, economic, and engineering evidence. Better integration of local insights can help support just transition goals, surface local concerns before they become costly or contentious, and identify social and political factors that may influence the success of long-term energy decisions. Our research focuses on designing a digital tool that supports the sense-making and integration of these insights into energy planning processes. We are currently looking for partners to help shape and test our prototype digital tool in one or both of the following ways:
Conversations with energy planners
We would like to speak with energy planners about how existing planning tools and evidence are used in practice. These conversations will help us understand where local qualitative insights could add value and what functions our tool needs to provide.
Case study sites
We are seeking organisations involved in place-based energy planning that affects local communities, including local authorities (or international equivalents), community energy organisations, and managers of large estates.
For case study sites, we would run a local engagement process and work with you to interpret the findings using our prototype tool. A hydrogen-related project is not required.
We would:
- Design and facilitate the engagement process;
- Cover engagement costs and participant compensation;
- Work with you to analyse and make sense of the resulting data; and
- Share any actionable insights with your organisation.
Our research focus is on the design and evaluation of the tool rather than on assessing your organisation or plans. We anticipate undertaking this work during the first half of 2027.
If you, or someone in your network, may be interested, please get in touch via email to adam.parnaby@newcastle.ac.uk and we would be happy to arrange a short introductory call.