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Energy Resilience Assessment - Practitioner Training

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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.

Update: The requirements for entry to this course are under review, and it is likely to be offered more widely for anyone already working with organisations in this area, without the need to then deliver it on behalf of TTandC.

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

No training dates are currently scheduled, to register your interest and be kept informed of future dates for 2012, please contact Fiona Ward.

What does the training usually 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 next 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 (once the next course dates are announced)

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 the 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.

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.

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.