## 2 Methods
### Methods Used to Assess the Case for Emergency DES in Australia  
This section summarises the research steps applied to explore DES adoption and opportunities at the domestic level. First, the study sought to develop a better understanding of the Emergency DES concept through a stakeholder workshop and expert interviews. The DES concept had been put forward as part of the Gippsland's Smart Specialisation Strategy, a project led by the Latrobe Valley Authority (LVA) and has been further developed by the Gippsland community group Voices of the Valley as a response to the 2019/2020 Black Summer fires (introduced in Section 1.3). Second, we assessed the impacts of the recent wildfire events on energy supply and energy infrastructure in Australia through desktop research and semi-structured interviews.  
A stakeholder workshop, the \"Smart Grid Innovation Forum\", was organised by the LVA to discuss the Emergency DES concept. The forum was attended by representatives from government agencies (local, state), the energy and solar industry, community groups, research and education including the research team, as well as hybrid groups with members from diverse backgrounds, such as the (Smart Grid) Innovation Group. Throughout the forum, the 'Innovation Group', together with the research team, reviewed existing information on DES, which was provided by the LVA and the community group. Workshop participation has been documented using the mapping software 'Miro'. The stakeholder map allowed us to visualise participants' roles in the process of DES adoption and identify key stakeholders, some of whom we later invited to the interview process.  
We conducted desktop research to explore DES applications in Australia. The Black Summer wildfires impacted the energy infrastructure in large parts of South-East Australia. The events in Gippsland present only one example where the infrastructure was destroyed, and communities were isolated. We explored domestic DES projects (mostly microgrids), objectives for technology adoption and funding mechanisms through desktop research. The assessment also included planned projects which have been put forward in response to climate extremes.  
Figure 5: Analytical framework of the study. The empirical and desktop research combined support the development of recommendations for Emergency DES adoption in East Gippsland.  
Semi-structured interviews were held via Zoom and were about 30 min in length. Interviewees were asked a list of questions related to the Black Summer wildfires (which were recent at the time of the interviews), the impact of the fire on their day-to-day work and their understanding of DES application as a response to climate emergencies. Interview participants included representatives of local councils, technology companies, electricity distribution companies, state government agencies (environment department, state emergency services) and community groups. The interview transcripts have been analysed using the NVivo text analysis software (Version 12; keyword search). We then used a Political, Economic, Socio-cultural, Technological, Environment and Legal framework to organise the interview findings and identify the macro factors that would influence the successful adoption of an Emergency DES concept in the East Gippsland district. PESTEL is a high-level assessment of the external environment and is often used to analyse market strategies or evaluate business ideas [20].