Case Studies By Service Area
Financial and Economic Services
Development of the Energywise™ Funding Programme
The Scope
MartinJenkins was engaged by the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority (EECA) to assist in the design and tender of a programme offering interest subsidies and grants for energy efficiency retrofits and clean heating installations. The subsidies and grants are to be delivered to qualifying homeowners through service providers and lenders across the country.
The project included working with a senior management team at EECA on the development of the initial policy framework for the programme, design of the financial products and running a two-stage Request for Information/Request for Proposals (RFI/RFP) process to identify service providers.
Our Involvement
MartinJenkins Associate Roger Fitzgerald worked with the EECA project team on the design of the content of the programme.
Nick Davis and Nicky Hunn developed a financial model that tested various approaches to the core interest subsidy product as well as developing an indicative subsidy calculator for service providers.
The project involved the development of policy options that aligned with the Authority’s brief from its Minister and its overall strategic direction, then testing these via a RFI process across the target sector. Feedback from the RFI was incorporated into the final programme design. Benchmarks for qualifying service providers were defined and an RFP process was run to seek partners to deliver the scheme.
The Outcome
The result was strong buy-in to the strategy from the sector and a programme that is attuned to the needs of the Authority and its many stakeholders. The product design was simple and flexible whilst ensuring the Crown’s costs were suitably capped. Utilising a “preferred provider” model meant that a broad-based market for the products was able to be created in a very short timeframe and the benefits of choice and competition made real for consumers.
The RFP proposal generated a lot of interest from interested service providers. At the time of writing, thirteen service providers have signed partnership agreements with the Authority and another five are in negotiation.
The MartinJenkins Difference
MartinJenkins has a strong understanding of the practicalities of policy development and implementation. Our consultants have the technical skills to identify and design financial products that are cost-effective and the experience necessary to design arrangements that work in practice as well as in theory.
In recommending a preferred provider model as the best option for delivering the programme, MartinJenkins was able to draw on its understanding of procurement policy and achieve tender results that exceeded all expectations.
Our client summarised the work done by MartinJenkins as follows: “Roger worked well with our project team, understood the outcomes we sought and worked closely with us to help us develop a programme that met our and our stakeholders’ expectations.”
