D4.2: Participatory design and user engagement strategy
Creators: name: Peacock, Andrew
name: Rahman Mumu, Tasniva
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2025

description: This Deliverable 4.2: Participatory design and user engagement strategy, is part of the EU-funded InterPED project, which aims to design and implement sustainable, community-driven DR strategies within Positive Energy Districts (PEDs). The InterPED project is developing an ICT control platform for Positive Energy Districts. Understanding participation strategies that will assist with recruiting participants, building energy community social capital and entrepreneurship, and allow user-centricdesign of PED flexibility is a critical component of the project research activity.

The InterPED project aims to establish a sustainable and adaptable DR strategy tailored to meet the unique needs of energy communities across Europe. As the energy landscape transitions toward a more decentralised and renewable-based system, DR emerges as a powerful tool, enabling communities to balance supply and demand flexibly. However, the success of DR strategies hinges not only on technological advancements but also on the active involvement of citizens. Recognising this need, Task 4.2 of the InterPED project places a strong emphasis on participatory design methodologies to develop user-centred DR solutions that reflect the needs, expectations, and values of energy communities.

The methodological framework developed for this deliverable integrates multiple co-creation and survey strategies, including participatory literacy, shared future imaginaries, user stories and Post Occupancy Evaluations. These provide citizen and building user inputs that enable DR solutions to be tailored to meet the specific social and technical contexts of each community. Appropriate to the social structure found in each community, this approach ensures that citizens and building users are not justpassive recipients of top-down energy policies but active participants in shaping their own energy futures. Outcomes from these processes feed into a collective learning process, with insights from each community guiding opportunities, constraints, refinements and adjustments to the overall DR framework.

A further intent of the research described here is to explore the extent to which participatory framework can be developed, applicable to the myriad of plausible PEDs emerging throughout Europe yet capable of producing bespoke, user-centric design input for development of DR. To be successful, these frameworks would have to be malleable enough to take account of project, locale, and citizen specificity, these defined as inputs to Interped workshops. The outputs, in conjunction with the conceptual discussions included in this deliverable, have and are contributing towards the development of participatory strategies for DR development for each InterPED pilot and in answer to whether standardised participatory frameworks might be envisaged. The scale of the challenge in developing standardised approaches for user-centric DR development are revealed by the thumbnail sketches of the pilots and the workshop/survey activity conducted in each community, provided below.

The Lugaritz-Matía pilot, with its healthcare setting, contains no possibility of active citizen participation. Consequently, a post-occupancy evaluation (POE) survey that sought to elicit building users' assessment of visual, acoustic and thermal comfort of the buildings replaced participatory workshops. Output from this POE survey effectively sets a user acceptance baseline against which any revised DR led control strategy of the building can be measured.

The Findhorn Ecovillage pilot is an established PED, predominantly residential with a functioning governance structure, located in the UK where building oriented DR has institutional support. Three workshops were conducted, exploring shared understanding of energy concepts and envisioned future energy scenarios. Decarbonisation of transport and DR strategies for heat pumps were developed alongside elicitation of user stories for the InterPED platform that considered community energy objectives and practical solutions like peer-to-peer trading.

The Arena Innovation Community pilot in Switzerland is an emergent residential PED where community governance is still being negotiated, but where citizen intent to participate in DR has been signalled. Citizen engagement comprised a public event with presentations and discussions about energy flexibility, participation in energy communities, and electric mobility, particularly in light of upcoming changes to Swiss energy regulations. Citizen input was designed to assist with the development of a simulation tool for DR solutions.

The Alba Iulia pilot is a fledgling educational PED in Romania. The concept of a prosumer has only recently been defined in Romania and no institutional support for building centric DR exists. This hampers any development of a governance structure. Workshop activity engaged citizens, stakeholders and students in envisioning the district's energy future, discussing the InterPED project, and exploring the advantages and disadvantages of various energy technologies, with a focus on co-creating sustainable pathways for the Dorin Pavel Technical College District. Details of these participatory design approaches and outcomes are discussed in this deliverable.

This report further addresses limitations encountered during designing participatory methods and implementation and provides targeted recommendations to improve the scalability and adaptability of DR strategies across varying community types. It also highlights the interconnectedness of this task with other work packages (WP6 and WP7) within the InterPED project, clarifying how each WP informs the overall DR strategy and ensures a cohesive continuation of efforts. This report reflects on these collaborations, linking findings from participatory DR strategies to ongoing work in other WPs to encourage cohesion and continuity across InterPED’s broader goals. The participatory frameworks developed in this deliverable provide a replicable model for integrating community engagement into future energy policies and PED initiatives, ensuring that energy transitions are inclusive, democratic, and socially equitable.