Municipal Program Administrator
This role ensures the best interests of the municipality are protected.
The administrator role may include working with municipal planning, financial, engineering, and legal departments to ensure the program design complies with municipal policies, protocols, and directives.
Program Coordinator
A Program Coordinator would typically report directly to the Municipal Program Administrator. This role can be taken on within or outside of the municipality. The Program Coordinator role is pivotal, with two major responsibilities: outreach to encourage program participation and oversight to ensure program goals are achieved. In a large municipality expecting broader participation, those responsibilities could potentially be split into two roles.
The Program Coordinator is the primary liaison with homeowners. They work with the municipality to pre-screen candidate houses, promote the program throughout the municipality and invite homeowners to join the program. They also help shepherd the homeowner through the program. This may begin with a financial eligibility test, followed by ensuring eligible homeowners are assigned an Energy Advisor through a participating service organization, and a DER Project Manager where appropriate.
The Program Coordinator may also be responsible for additional training and onboarding for the various roles in the project.
Project Manager
A Project Manager role may be needed to help ensure retrofit projects in the program are completed and that retrofits achieve intended outcomes, including homeowner energy savings. Without retrofit oversight from the Project Manager, there is a risk that specific conservation measures will be overlooked or avoided due to a lack of understanding among homeowners and involved contractors. The Project Manager must collaborate with homeowners, energy advisors and local trades to define the scope and cost effectiveness of the project.
The Project Manager also ensures the work leading to energy reductions is eligible under PACE financing and/or other supporting incentive programs available to homeowners. This role can assist the homeowner to arrange contractor estimates/quotes, to determine ROI, to interpret quotes, or to schedule trades. Typical homeowners may not have the time or knowledge to be able to do this on their own.
Homeowner
The Homeowner has the responsibility to ensure that they are eligible for financing. Once finances are confirmed, homeowners are matched with an Energy Advisor who will carry out an assessment of the home. There is an educational process that should be delivered to the homeowner by the Project Manager, helping the homeowner understand the project, their responsibilities, obligations, and what they can expect from the program.
Energy Advisor (“EA”) and Service Organization
The Energy Advisor and Service Organization report to the homeowner as per NRCan policies. They also work with the Project Manager to develop the phased DER or NZEr plan for each homeowner. Clean Foundation and other Service Organizations have in-house expertise on costing for renovations, return on investments, and creating work orders for energy conservation measures. Energy Advisors must be part of a collaborative upgrade process, lending their skill set to both Homeowners and the Program Manager.
Contractors
Each contractor entering the program should enroll in the program’s vetting process. The vetting process should outline the workmanship standards, safety responsibilities, goals for the program, billing processes, etc.
Contractors will work directly with the Project Manager. The Project Manager works directly with the Homeowner to plan and provide proscribed upgrade solutions tailored to the home. The Project Manager helps the Homeowners make the best decisions based on their needs, program goals and financing limitations.
