Overview
Duration: 12 months (2025 - 2026)
Project lead: Associate Professor Kim Blackmore, e: kim.blackmore@anu.edu.au
The growth in uptake of consumer energy resources such as solar panels and home batteries and the rapidly evolving technologies that make these systems work in the home present a plethora of challenges and opportunities for the tradespeople who install these devices in customer homes.
“It’s up to us to explain the quality and technology.”
Installer in research interview, Customer Insights Report 1, Electrify 2515 Community Pilot.
Tradespeople do more than just the technical work — they help shape the whole experience for the customer. Research shows that when installers understand a household’s needs, explain options clearly, and offer ongoing support, people feel more confident and satisfied with their new technology.
Installers juggle rapidly evolving technologies and consumer education responsibilities on a tight profit margin that constrains their capacity to assist. Consumer advocacy research confirms these challenges, with ACTCOSS finding consumers "worried about the sometimes conflicting or unreliable advice they receive from tradespeople” (Report, 2023).
This project will develop innovative ways to teach customer advisory skills alongside battery installation training. The primary objective is to develop evidence-based frameworks that can be used in vocational training and industry partnerships. This will include competency mapping to define specific consumer advisory skills required through systematic analysis of installer-consumer interactions and industry feedback.
The research scope encompasses residential battery installation contexts across diverse consumer circumstances (urban/regional, rental/ownership, different income levels). This project will focus on the critical decision points where installer guidance most influences consumer outcomes: initial consultation, system specification, Virtual Power Plant participation decisions, and learning how to use the system day-to-day.
What We’ll Be Doing
Research & Stakeholder Mapping
Understand the existing skills and knowledge of battery installers.
Review existing studies and run workshops with educators, employers, consumer advocates, and installers to understand the capacities and constraints of key delivery agents, identify skill gaps and develop industry priorities.
Co-Design & Framework Building
Through scenario-based workshops and mock consultations, we’ll explore how installers and customers interact. We’ll also talk to employers to understand what helps or hinders good advisory practices in the workplace.
Pilot Program
In partnership with TAFE Centre of Excellence Clean Energy Batteries we will test training modules that combine technical and advisory skills. We’ll also trial co-teaching methods and develop assessment tools.
We’ll wrap up by finalising training materials, assessment rubrics, and partnership models — plus an easy-to-follow guide to help other training providers adopt the approach.
How We’ll Collect Data
We’ll gather insights from:
• Literature synthesis
• Interviews and workshops with installers, educators, employers, and consumer representatives
• Video recordings of simulated advisory scenarios
• Feedback and results from the pilot program.
