The context

As part of Bristol's One City Plan, by 2050 Bristolians will be well-connected with digital services and efficient and sustainable transport. TwinERGY supports these objectives through innovative tools that ensure a more affordable energy.

The challenge

The heart of the Bristol Pilot is to explore how to improve energy efficiency and sustainable attitudes within communities. Could citizens start playing a more active role in the energy market if they were aware of the technical possibilities offered by the Digital Twin Technology? Bristol will discover it!

The Solution

The pilot involves a number of phases, selecting 12 representative households and working with people to co-design the deployment of monitoring and actuation capabilities. 

The Bristol Approach, a proven framework for fostering community-driven digital innovations, leads the co-exploration and identification of citizens' concerns around energy consumption. It provides a set of tools to engage citizens in the co-design of technological solutions to ensure that the project accommodates their needs and priorities. The Bristol pilot focuses on involving groups often underrepresented in the debate of emerging and future energy markets (e.g. young people, minority groups, home in fuel poverty).

The installation of smart devices at participants’ homes for their testing, workshops on data governance, co-design of citizen participation or the presentation of the project in events to spread the word are some of the actions already being carried out.

The Results

• Promote solutions to local authorities to tackle people-led innovations in the energy system. 

• Increase citizens’ awareness of energy consumption. 

• Foster citizens-driven energy management.