Learnings

Outcomes

Please refer to row 1, table 1 for detailed on the outcomes of the project. 

Self-identified vulnerable users and not self-identified vulnerable users were similar in their needs of an ev.energy power cut notification feature:

1.     When separating the analysis between the 40 self-identified users and 60 non self-identified users, overall self-identified users were less concerned about power cuts but remain interested in receiving information about the start/end time to the power cut and status updates. 

2.     When asking what type of information users wanted from a power cut notification, information about accessing priority services was ranked last, with only 8 users finding this useful (and here we had an even split between self-identified and non-self-identified PSR users). 

3.     It was decided to create a single notification journey. 

4.     It was also decided to still include information about UK Power Networks’ PSR on the Powercast landing page despite low responses for this in the survey, as interviews confirmed that users would still find this information useful if they needed to share it with impacted neighbours.  

Lessons Learnt

The following lessons learnt have been identified from the project to date but a fully documented lessons learnt activity will be conducted at the end of the project:

What went well?

1.    User engagement with a combined approach of surveying 100 users with structured content and then following up with 8 users for one to one interviews has proven fruitful. Useful insights have been identified and further validated from the interviews. Whereas the original approach was thought to just conduct a survey. 

2.    Offering a financial incentive to support engagement activities was also positive and contributed to the high and prompt engagement response. 

3.    Leveraging the existing data mechanisms to quickly get up and running has led to an efficient implementation of the trial.                                                                                                                                                                                                 

What didn’t go so well?

1.    It is apparent that the demographics that have engaged are typically older aged white men that are wealthy and in retirement. This may skew the insights to not be entirely reflective, but it is assumed that current EV owners fall more into this category as early adopters of new technology.