PROMETHEUS (PRoviding users with Organised and Monitored Energy services by Transparent and High standard EU Smes) aims to reduce the confusion and lack of trust that are currently stopping final customers from purchasing green energy services. This will be achieved by four main actions (Work Packages):
- find and diffuse best practices on strategies to enlarge the market of green energy services
- setting quality standards and guarantee systems for green energy services,
- supporting the creation of new green energy clusters
- launching the “Trust Your Supplier” awareness campaign
Four key technical working areas:
1. actions by trade associations and other decision makers to improve market conditions (through political, financial, managing and regulation tools);
2. the creation or implementation of guarantee systems to heighten consumers’ trust
3. the support to the institution of well organised clusters and consortia between enterprises in order to provide valuable energy services
4. Dissemination of results also through the campaign “Trust your supplier”
1 Improve market conditions
By identifying the environmental factors, contexts, tools and actors to be involved (WP2)
-define tools for a sound organisation of SMEs associations in order to improve governance and management systems able to provide secure and transparent energy services to customers and other SMEs.
-identified successful tools will be made available to market actors (especially EU SMEs associations) through an online Toolbox, in order to facilitate their transferability to other EU realities.
2 Guarantee systems to heighten consumers’ trust
By defining a system to guarantee the quality of provided energy services that is easily appreciable by end consumers (WP3)
-to build a EU quality system to ensure the quality of work performed by RES and EE suppliers.
-SMEs category associations should guarantee the quality of the service (i.e. that their associated installers are skilled and trained, prices are reasonable, etc.) and continuously check the activity of their associates in order to provide a quality control and a guarantee system of installers’ work and supply conditions.
3 Support the institution of Clusters
To promote the aggregation among small enterprises of the sector, in order to share resources and know-how and to create a qualitative offer that is competitive in European markets (WP4)
-most suitable tools to promote clusters and consortia: start-up tools, campaigns, technical/management support, match-making for SMEs, training to key figures, etc.
-create a manual with guidelines for stakeholders interested in the constitution of new energy clusters, (best awarded procedures and solutions for good cluster start-up).
4 Dissemination of results
The dissemination of results is an important activity lasting the whole project . In particular for the specific objectives of Prometheus we have created a specific campaign called “Trust your supplier”. The final aim is to establish trust between the supplier and the consumer in the sustainable energy market.
The campaign “Trust your supplier” will consist of the following activities, to be performed by all partners:
- 3 public 1 day events (1 event a year), where stands of installers, planners, suppliers, banks, environmental associations and other subjects will demonstrate to people the advantages of sustainable energy, as well as promote services.
- Advertisements in the press, websites, radio, possibly articles in the local press to be published by all partners. Experience has shown that a great tool for the dissemination of information is the internet, so partners can use their websites, forums, blogs etc. in order to advertise the events and have access to a larger number of users.
- Campaign promotion materials (at least 1 brochure or leaflet and 1 poster) explaining the Campaign’s objectives and actions, with common layout to be translated into partners’ languages, printed by Partners and distributed during public events
- Gadgets (e.g. calendars, pens, etc.) to be distributed to people featuring the IEE and Campaign logo (possibly also the project logo), as well as the Project website, to be prepared and distributed by each partner locally.
Some possible local actions are already foreseen by partners, however they will have to be confirmed and coordinated by the SC.