Introduction

EST Advice Centre will provide support for Manchester local authorities in delivery of climate change and emission-related performance measures, in developing schemes to cut energy use, and helping householders increase disposable income by cutting household bills.

Objectives and target audience

The Energy Saving Trust will provide funding for a distinct range of activities under the EST Advice Centre model. These activities are all associated either with specific carbon savings per activity or where carbon savings are less easy to attribute to the activity, targets are built around certain Key Performance Indicators. The requirements of the contract are technical and operational, based on the provision of a call centre, development of initiatives meeting strict criteria, and implementation at local level of EST national schemes.
The EST Advice Centre model focuses very much on cost-effectiveness and producing the carbon savings from segments of the domestic market that consume the most energy. A major part of the work of the EST Advice Centre will be to identify hotspot areas in Greater Manchester where there are high carbon saving yields available and to focus attention on households in these areas to encourage engagement and uptake of measures.
The above focus is not to the preclusion of less carbon intensive areas and the EST Advice Centre will continue to provide a freely accessible service to all Greater Manchester residents in the same way that the EEACs have over the last 6 years. However, the emphasis has shifted substantially from an ‘assisting fuel poor’ model to an ‘identifying biggest carbon savings’ (often found in fuel rich/wealthier households) performance model.

Financial Resources and Partners involved

The EST Advice Centre concept is based on extending the partnership currently operating across the Greater Manchester Energy Efficiency Advice Centre, which has proved effective in many ways e.g.; sharing best practice, ensuring the EEAC’s work compliments that of respective stakeholders and encouraging continuity and partnership strength.
However, in the past, this group (due to the fuel poverty and home energy emphasis of the previous contract) comprised mainly HECA, Fuel Poverty or Housing Officers. In view of the ESTACs expanded remit and wider climate change focus, it is proposed that there are two coordinating delegates from authorities; one to cover the traditional HECA brief, and the other, where available, representing work being undertaken in the wider climate change / environmental sustainability field. Effective participation from delegates is key to your authority gaining the optimum benefit from the ESTAC. While the ESTAC interface is likely to deliver economies of scale due to the support it can provide to authorities in planning and executing campaigns and energy schemes, and delegates will need to dedicate around 1-2 days per month to effectively manage the relationship.
Service Level Agreements have been in place between the EEAC and individual authorities for a number of years. In the light of the contract renewal, and increasing number of requests for additional activities to be outsourced to the EEAC, these agreements need to be redrafted. This will be the first task of the Operational Partnership Group.
The primary staff resources to deliver the ESTAC core service will be provided by a Manchester City Council-hosted service under the funding arrangement with the Energy Saving Trust. However there is a requirement for support from individual Association of Greater Manchester Authorities (AGMA) authorities to help facilitate this work for the mutual benefit of all. Whilst the exact nature of this support will develop and evolve through the course of the programme it is anticipated that the ESTAC service will be able to deliver performance far more effectively than in previous instances.

Process

The EST Advice Centre has a broad remit across the 10 Greater Manchester local authorities. Therefore, the below is not an exhaustive list of the services that will be provided to all 10 Greater Manchester local authorities (and their residents) as part of the core service operated by the EST Advice Centre. There will be no charge for any of these services to individual authorities, as these will be delivered by Manchester City Council on behalf of AGMA under contract to the Energy Saving Trust.
1.    Promotions
a.    National Marketing: The advice service will deliver national marketing campaigns through local channels that reach target audiences including unpaid for media e.g. council newsletters. This includes promoting themes at the same time as national Energy Saving Trust marketing activity.
b.    Regional Marketing: In line with national branding and messaging the advice service will co-ordinate regional consumer marketing campaigns that address regional carbon saving priorities as identified from market analysis.
c.    Local marketing: Take part in field marketing activity with local outlets of national organisations e.g. DIY stores, car dealerships where the activity helps achieve the agreed carbon saving priorities.
2.    Householder Advice
Provision of free, bespoke and impartial advice on energy use through:
a.    Free Advice: The advice service will advise householders, community representatives and SME’s working out of domestic properties either over the phone, via email or in person. The advice will cover energy efficiency, renewable energy, and transport.
a.    Referrals: The advice service will focus on providing all advice customers with a recommended next step. It will facilitate referrals to schemes, maintain lists of installers and suppliers for measures, and hold relevant information on prices of products and services, including schemes and incentives.
b.    Carbon Foot printing: Customers will be offered, either on the web or through a paper questionnaire, the ability to work out their carbon footprint. The customer will be able to discuss with an advisor, by phone or email, what they can do to reduce their footprint.
c.    Home Energy Check: The advice service will arrange mass mailings of this short questionnaire, ideally as partnerships. These will be by post (e.g. with council tax mailings) or email (e.g. to employees of particular businesses.)
d.    Advertised ‘Surgeries’ The advice service will set up stands for face-to-face advice within community locations (e.g. housing offices) or public places (e.g. shows, shopping centres) around GM.
e.    Free DIY EPC (HEC) Customers will be offered a free DIY Energy Performance Certificate. They will either complete a questionnaire, on paper or on the website, or go through the questions with an advisor. A computer generated report will give them an indication of what they could expect from a full EPC, together with some suggestions on how to reduce their energy use.
3.    Proactive Advice
a.    Hotspot Targeting: The advice service will analyse customer segmentation data, Home Energy Efficiency Database (HEED) and other available regional data to identify key carbon saving opportunities for the region and base its targeting activity around these. The advice service will prioritise areas down to ward level, with operational and promotional activity focusing on persuading householders in these ‘hotspot’ areas to take action.
b.    Data Prospecting: The advice service will analyse the Energy Saving Trust’s database of contacts to identify the warmest prospects for priority carbon saving actions. The advice service will proactively contact these consumers by telephone, aiming to convert consumers to action. For example, contacting priority segment consumers with empty cavity walls or planning to buy a new car.
4.    In Depth Support
a.    Personal Advisor Service: Customers will be offered the services of a named individual to help them explore their options to save energy. The contact will be restricted to phone/email but will focus on a long term relationship with the personal advisor also facilitating action such as referrals. The contact will build around a HEC, which will also monitor progress. The advisor will be available on request to the customer and will proactively follow up with details of offers or to oversee progress.
5.    Working with business
a.    Technology Showcasing Events: The advice service will work with manufacturers and suppliers to run events aimed at helping householders, decision makers (e.g. planning officers) and potential new installers to see and learn about specific energy saving technologies.
b.    Home Insulation Partnership: The Energy Saving Trust advice service will establish a partnership of relevant organisations to address quality, capacity & promotional issues within the insulation supply side. This partnership will also work to shared targets and to common promotional messages.
6.    Working with Communities
a.    Low Carbon Communities: The advice service will work with selected communities or social groups to adopt low carbon actions (e.g. a football club actively focussing on car sharing) with the aim that the members of ‘low carbon communities’ will see themselves as ‘low carbon citizens.’
b.    Identify Exemplars: For use in its promotional activities, the advice service will identify community schemes to utilise as exemplars or case studies.

Results

Results from the project are not yet available due to the ongoing nature of the process. However, the EST Advice Centre model uses a dual methodology of calculation in attributing Carbon savings to its activities. The first method is to use information from the Energy Saving Trust’s market research work which attributes an ‘assumed saving’ for every household receiving advice from the service, with the assumed saving being an average of the improvements that are typically made following advice. The second method is to attribute savings according to actual measures installed following advice and is only possible with robust reporting mechanisms between the advice service, authority and energy company schemes and contractors
The Energy Saving Trust is moving towards the second method described above. The Greater Manchester ESTAC will initially be using both methodologies through a transitional period.
All carbon savings achieved by the EST Advice Centre will be reportable at an individual local authority level to allow utilisation of the information in the preparation of HECA returns, environmental sustainability, climate change and/or Local Area Agreement reporting.
Top line targets for the GMN ESTAC are:
Annual targets    Householder Advice    Proactive Targeting    Advice Mailings    In depth support    Total
Customers    26,800    NA    47,000    NA    NA
TC    43,600    29,800    76,500    6,400    156,300

Critical Success Factors / Challenges

The benefits of an EST Advice Centre for both local authorities and local communities are clear. Aside from the overriding imperative of cutting emissions and combating climate change, the EST Advice Centre will support authorities in delivery of climate change and energy related performance measures, provide support and assistance in developing schemes and projects to deliver energy use reduction, and help local householders increase disposable income via cutting energy bills. It is also hoped that they will also assist in securing grants and other inward investment, work to establish and grow energy products and services supply chains in the local area, and support existing energy services companies in updating their service offering to take account of the climate change agenda.