Energy Resilience Assessment - Practitioner Training

Who is this for?

This training is offered by Transition Training and Consulting. It is aimed at people who would like to become an Energy Resilience Assessment practitioner with the TTandC Practitioner Network. More information, including the application criteria, is given below.

As you will see, this process is more akin to a job application than just booking yourself on a training course, as this training is an entry point for joining a group of skilled people doing paid work - albeit on a self-employed basis - on behalf of TTandC (and so the Transition Network). You will need to take some time to fully absorb all of this information, and if you choose, to complete the application form - we hope you are interested in helping us with this exciting work... if you have any questions please contact Fiona Ward.

What's an ERA?

Please see the 'external' Transition Training and Consulting website where you can download an ERA service overview and case studies and also find out more about our other services.

Upcoming training dates

The next 2 day Energy Resilience Assessment practitioner training course will run from Thursday 30th Sep - Friday 1st October 2010 in Bristol. The deadline for applications is Friday 13th August.

To be informed of future training dates by email, please contact Fiona Ward.

Costs and venue details

The cost of the 2 day training course is £260 per attendee. This includes the training venue, lunch and refreshments on both days and course materials. Note that we deliver this training at cost and do not aim to make a profit from it.

There is an additional cost for attendees who do not live in the UK or Ireland - please see the section at the bottom of this page for more information.

The course is being held at a lovely venue called Emmaus House in Clifton, Bristol which also provides food and accomodation. We have found it makes the courses run even better when we all stay in the same place, but of course you can find your own local accomodation if you prefer.

B&B costs at Emmaus House for a single room are £40 per person per night, with an ensuite room (limited supply) costing £45 pp pn. It may be possible to share a twin room to reduce costs further. You will be asked to make your own booking directly with Emmaus House (or other place of your choice) only once your application has been confirmed. Those travelling from a distance may wish to also stay the night before, as we start at 10am on the first day of the course. The second day finishes at 6pm and all attendees need to stay until that time, please bear that in mind when looking at train times etc. Please do not book any travel or accomodation until your place has been confirmed.

You will be asked to pay a £50 deposit when you submit your application, this will only be refunded if you are not offered a place on the course.

What does the training cover and how can ERA be applied in the field? 

The Energy Resilience Assessment is a consulting service designed to be delivered in about 5 days, possibly over several weeks or even months. The objectives of an ERA are:

• To help an organisation understand where it has the greatest exposure to fluctuating energy prices:
  • To identify areas of greatest vulnerability
  • To guesstimate/model the financial risk (per the scope)
  • To highlight potential mitigation strategies
• To pass on the tools and techniques to the organisation, so they can continue the work
• To start to identify ways to reduce the organisation’s energy risk exposure, and so increase its resilience

ERA explores the indirect and direct energy use of an organisation, with a focus on oil and other fossil fuels. For the agreed scope the process explores the relevant areas of a business such as: the supply chain (raw materials, transportation, manufacture/assembly power); direct energy use for heat, light and power; distribution channels through to end-customers; and/or employees.

This product sits between the ‘Understand the situation’ and ‘Manage the risks’ sections of the TTandC services map as shown below.

It works well as an awareness-raising tool for an organisation, and is a practical straightforward data collection and analysis activity.

It is not positioned as something that directly challenges current business models or introduces resilience or even transition thinking – rather it provides some objective information that will help an organisation understand its risks.

This activity will be familiar to most organisations – our skill of course is in the presentation of the analysis, the vulnerabilities and the potential solution paths which clearly will not include an assumption of uninterrupted, cheap energy.

This is a point of opportunity to engage the client in meaningful dialogue. TTandC is developing and piloting other products that more overtly explore resilience thinking, the viability of business as usual models, the application of transition ideals and learnings to organisations and so on.

Important note about potential income

ERA has been mainly developed based on pilot work with 4 businesses in Totnes plus a large national organisation. As such, the product is still very new and we are still learning a lot about selling and delivering it, and we will improve the offering as we go. We are only just starting to position and deliver ERA with clients through TTandC on a commercial footing (only 1 has just been completed on this basis). We cannot therefore give you reliable forecasts of exactly how much interest there is from paying clients, or how soon you may start to earn ANY income as an ERA practitioner.

Much of this will be down to your own ability to position and sell this service with your local organisations and existing contacts. The ERA practitoners out there in the field already are actively creating their own work, which is taking some time (and of course highly depends on how much time they have to invest in such business development activity). TTandC will support you with this, and hopefully be able to pass some leads your way, but you will not be able to earn a living wage just from ERA, certainly in the short-term. 

Of course, we have developed ERA as we strongly believe that there is a need for this service, and that demand could/will rapidly grow as energy prices continue to fluctuate, energy security becomes more a mainstream topic (e.g. the June 2010 Lloyds of London and Chatham House report), economic uncertainty continues and transition movement’s profile grows in all parts of society. Joining us at this early stage is an opportunity to be involved from the beginning, to grow with us and to contribute to the learning that’s essential to help shape this product, and TTandC overall.

We are passionate about bringing transition thinking to business and organisations, we believe in the work we are doing, we think there’s a big need we can fill. We are collectively creating TTandC as the kind of equitable, dynamic, values-led, learning organisation we’ve always wanted to be a part of - we hope you want to join us! We are just now implementing the first phase of our Awareness Raising Strategy (please ask if you would like to see a copy of this), and you will start to see more about us in the general media as well as in Transition Network communications.

TTandC's standard rates for ERA delivery range from about £280-£1,000 per day, depending on the business size and type of organisation. Practitioners usually get 70% of this daily rate per current pay guidelines. This info may help you to decide whether to make this investment in the ERA training, taking into account the caveats above as well as the potential opportunities.

Cheerful disclaimer

• ERA is an evolving service and delivery process, we’re still at an early stage
• This course is based on the work done with 4 micro/small businesses and a large regional organisation, but is relevant for organisations of any size (the scope of the work is what’s important)
• It’s not very prescriptive – this will not tell you what to do and how to do it in every situation
• You will see examples of work that’s been done, understand the principles, and then you need to decide how best to apply this/improve it to each new client
• We don’t have all the answers, but our collective learnings will continue to strengthen this work
• You will need to experiment and adapt ERA, take reasonable risks and try new things in different ways...

Application criteria

At this time TTandC is looking for people who will be able to quickly learn the ERA process, adapt as required then apply it well. We do not have time or resources to develop general consulting skills. Therefore we are looking for those who have significant relevant consulting experience already, among other things.

The following are the ERA pre-requisites, some of which will be assessed as part of the application process and some you will self-assess.

Things we formally assess:

• Significant experience of successfully delivering consulting services to organisations 
• Able to work alone to deliver ERA and run the project successfully
• Current involvement in a local transition initiative or similar
• Understanding of transition issues and how they apply to organisations
• Ability to innovate and work creatively with little formal support in a fast changing and diverse field

Things you self-assess:

• Qualities that make you a desirable member of a collaborative, mutually self-supporting, mainly virtual team
• Ability to take care of your own personal resilience
• Skill level with PowerPoint and Excel

Things you will be asked to formally sign-up to on entry to P-Net:

• Understanding of, and commitment to, the principles and ethos of transition per the TTandC principles and code of conduct
• The following criteria will be assessed as part of the evaluation/sign-off process at the end of the course:
  
  • The requirements as listed above
  • Communication and interpersonal skills
  • Understanding of, and ability to apply, ERA

Course overview

The aim of this 2 day practitioner training course is to give you the skills and knowledge so you can position, adapt then deliver, ERAs for businesses and organisations in your community.  The course outline is presented below. Note that everyone needs to stay for the evaluation session at the end of the 2nd day.

Timing for the next application process 

 Application form

Download the application form (if you still have the energy having read through all of the above!)

Please note that you will be asked to pay a non-refundable deposit of £50 when you submit your application form. Of course, if you are not invited to attend to course for any reason then we will refund the deposit. We are just setting up an online system through  which you can pay the deposit and then the course fees, this will soon be linked in here.

Not from the UK?

Quite a few people in other transition countries have expressed an interest in learning about ERA, so that they can apply it to businesses and organisations back in their own locale. We are currently exploring how we might best set up a model that shares the TTandC services as widely as possible across the international transition network (to those who want it), while providing some appropriate level of co-ordination, support and ongoing development. This discussion is just getting underway with some of the national hubs, and will take some time to come to an agreement.

Meanwhile we are keen to share ERA as widely as possible, and we have a few spaces on the next ERA course available for non-UK attendees. Providing you meet the application criteria and are fluent in English then you are very welcome to apply. If you are from a country with a national transition hub, then please confirm to us that the hub is supportive of your application. If there is no hub then please confirm your local transition initiative is supportive of your application.

Finances for non-UK attendees: you will be required to pay an additional fee of £200 that will cover your membership of the TTandC Practitioner Network for 12 months. Being part of the P-Net gives you a number of benefits. Note that UK ERA practitioners give 30% of their daily rate to TTandC as their contribution to the P-Net costs, and as we will not be able to replicate this model with non-UK practitioners at the moment, we are setting an annual fee instead. We can provide more info about how this amount was set - just ask.

Within this next 12 month period we will have collectively set up a model for how TTandC works in non-UK countries (we would hope that you participate in these discussions) and so these support fees will be reviewed at this time. 

And finally, a quick note about ERA and OVA

Note that ERA is not the same as an Oil Vulnerability Audit (OVA) as developed by the University of Liverpool, and piloted/co-developed in Totnes. The OVA uses activity based costing and process decomposition techniques in a proprietary excel tool, to analyse in detail the resources of an organisation, and then calculate an Oil Vulnerability Ratio. ERA however takes a higher level, broader look across an organisation in order to highlight the areas of greatest vulnerability.  It is more of a diagnostic/awareness raising activity than a detailed financial analysis exercise and it does not get into solutions in any detail, merely signposts towards them. TTandC will not be offering the OVA service, only the ERA at this time.