A multi-stakeholder decision support system for local neighbourhood energy planning

Implementation of clean energy initiatives at the neighbourhood level by local stakeholders is necessary to reach internationally agreed climate goals. The present paper aims to design a novel decision support system in order to facilitate clean neighbourhood energy planning with the involvement of multiple stakeholders, initiated by a local authority. In our study the cornerstones of a multi-stakeholder decision support system, containing data, models, tools, and a design process are presented so as to assist local authorities in preparing an energy plan for reaching pre-set climate goals. The decision support system was tested in a pilot case in the city of The Hague, The Netherlands. This new policy instrument is helpful for effective energy planning by introducing stakeholders and sharing and learning from different perspectives. The explicit recognition of boundary conditions specified by stakeholders turns out to enrich a purely ‘technical’ energy optimisation plan and to generate a much broader support for new energy initiatives. By making a location-specific plan stakeholders are able to come up with useful information and recommendations. Furthermore, a facilitator present during the design process was necessary to guide the discussion and provide explanations about the data.