The User-Centred Energy Systems mission is to provide evidence from socio-technical research on the design, social acceptance and usability of clean energy technologies to inform policy making for clean, efficient and secure energy transitions.

Latest News
Second HCB Network experts meeting – May 14-16, Spokane, Washington, US
Research is underway in this joint Users TCP and EBC TCP Task. The second experts meeting will take place from May 14 to 16, 2025 at Washington State University Spokane Health Sciences Campus, Spokane, Washington, U.S.A.
Save the date! Behave 2025 conference on 11th and 12th December 2025
Save the date! On 11th and 12th December 2025, Behave 2025, the 8th European conference on energy efficiency by the European Energy Network (EnR), will take place in Paris, France. ADEME, the French Agency for Ecological Transition, are organising this edition on the theme “From energy efficiency to sufficiency: the need for a change in lifestyles to ensure a just transition to carbon neutrality”.
Ainslee Emerson elected as new User-Centred Energy Systems TCP Chair
Ainslee is Senior Director of the Strategic Policy and Analysis Division in the Office of Energy Efficiency at Natural Resources Canada. She brings a wealth of experience from her work on energy policy in Canada, chairing the International Energy Agency’s Gender Advisory Council and representing Canada on the steering committee of the Clean Energy Ministerial.
Tasks
Publications
HTR Task – Unintended Consequences Report
This report is the first major milestone of Year 1 Phase 2 of the Hard-to-Reach Energy Users Task. It delves deeply, via mixed methods research, into the question why
Making an inclusive and gender aware energy policy
This paper presents a synthesis of three case studies carried out within the sub-task 2 of the Gender and Energy Research Programme with some supporting evidence from other sources. The sub-task set out to gain an understanding of the systematic inertias in the sociotechnical energy system hindering the formation of gender aware policies and interventions and then to identify ways of countering the inertias.
Facilitating Community – Industry Engagement in Aotearoa New Zealand
This research, funded by the Electricity Retailers Association New Zealand (ERANZ), will inform Subtask 5 of Phase 2 (Co-Design of Engagement Strategies For Chosen Priority Audiences) of the HTR Task.

The UsersTCP Academy builds on the success of a half century of webinars delivered through the DSM University. The new series provides access to the knowledge developed through our research programme and the work of our partners.