Stakeholder Use Cases

inspecting a solar panel

The IEDR Program is following a development approach that identifies and prioritizes stakeholder use cases that provide the greatest value to New York residents as the State achieves its nation-leading climate goals. IEDR Program activities will be continually framed through the evaluation and prioritization of use cases.

We are continuing to team up with end users and relevant stakeholders to understand user needs and develop use cases.

Interested in submitting a use case? Follow this link to the IEDR ideas portal to submit your use case directly to the IEDR Development Team.

Use Case Overview

Stakeholder use cases will drive and guide the development of the IEDR. A stakeholder use case is a description of the data and information that an IEDR user will access through the platform, how they will use that data and information, and the beneficial outcome that will result from having access to it. Stakeholder use cases will help identify the data and functionality needed on the IEDR platform to accomplish our mission of providing New Yorkers with effective access to useful energy data.

Stakeholder use cases are a central part of the user-centered design process for IEDR. The IEDR Program will continue to expand the number and variety of opportunities within this process for stakeholders and potential users to explore how data and information will enable them to create value while accelerating action against climate change.

Below is an overview of the key steps in the IEDR’s user-centered design approach.

Overview of the User-Centered Design Process

Define personas
Use cases are like mini stories written from the user's perspective, so it's important to first spend time defining the different users who will be using the platform. Personas are an archetype that can be used to help guide decisions about what data are included and at what levels, navigation, interactions, and visual design.
Outline persona drivers
For each persona, it is important to identify what their goals and motivations are, as well as understand their expectations for the functionality of the system. Drivers include characteristics, motivations, pain points, and the outcome the persona wants to achieve, including the problem the persona is trying to resolve with the solution.
Use case development
Use cases should be simple, concise, and align with persona drivers. Generally, use cases follow this basic format: "As (persona), I want (what?), so that (why)." The curation and collection of use cases should include the identification and evaluation of acceptance criteria - what must be fulfilled so that the story can be identified and completed.
Use case prioritization
A prioritization framework must be transparently outlined to categorize use cases based on how critical they are to the overall success of the IEDR platform for key stakeholders
Develop wireframes
Wireframe development begins the transformation of ideas into a high-level solution. This step begins to clearly identify data owners, define data structure and requirements, conceptualize ideas, ideate solutions, and validate designs based on what was uncovered throughout persona research and use case discovery.
Design, test, adapt, deploy, iterate
Prototyping, testing, and adapting designs before deployment ensures that data quality and user functionality requirements are met. As new use cases are collected or prioritized, the platform can be continuously adapted and improved.

Stakeholder Engagement

Meaningful stakeholder participation is essential to the success of the IEDR initiative. Previously, interested stakeholders were invited to participate in an initial process to identify, characterize, and prioritize IEDR use cases. The compiled use case submissions were prioritized for development; you can view our current use case development schedule in the tables below:

The uses cases listed below were completed and included in the IPV in Q1 2023:

Launch	Use Case	Description
IPV – Q1 2023	Consolidated Hosting Capacity Maps	This use case supports DER developers, DER owners and/or utilities to view all hosting capacity maps for the entire state in one map view with consistent data, so that users can site new DERs and monitor the state of DER development in New York accurately. Foundational functionality will be implemented in IPV, with enhancements to hosting capacity maps expected to be developed in future releases.
IPV – Q1 2023	Large Installed Distributed Energy Resources (DERs)	This use case supports Energy Service Entities (ESE) and/or government staff members who want to view all installed DERs that utilities have data on (e.g., over 300kw), so they can site new DERs or monitor the state of DER development in New York. This use case also provides access to the necessary information pertaining to installed DERs including attributes, location, and status in a consistent format across the entire utility service territories.
IPV – Q1 2023	Large Planned Distributed Energy Resources (DERs) (Interconnection Queue)	This use case supports Energy Service Entities (ESE) and/or government staff members who want to view and monitor all planned DERs that utilities have data on (e.g., over 300kw), so they can site new DERs or monitor the state of DER development in New York. This use case also provides access to the necessary information that pertains to large planned DERs including attributes, location, and status in a consistent format across the entire utility service territories.

Below is a list of projected use cases slated for development in the IEDR Minimum Viable Product (MVP) launch in Q4 2023. The use cases below are in draft format and not finalized.

Launch	Use Case	Description
MVP - Q2-Q4 2023	DER Siting –Environmental, Community, Terrain, Land, and Property Assessment	This use case will support local governments and community solar developers who want to accelerate the process for identifying, selecting, and negotiating site agreements for community solar projects, by providing access to environmental, community, and property data, (in addition to electrical infrastructure information, which was foundationally covered in the IEDR IPV release), that will allow users to reliably identify feasible sites for solar development, in order to deploy available capital more quickly and increase the amount of clean energy available to New York State electricity customers.
MVP - Q2-Q4 2023	EIAT (Electronic Infrastructure Assessment Tool) Hosting Capacity & DER Map Enhancements	This use case will support DER developers, DER owners and utilities to better understand and accelerate the interconnection approval process for DER systems, by providing a clearer understanding and evaluation of the process of siting the location of a DER installation, so that DER projects can deliver clean energy to customers as soon as possible. Features that will enable the function of this use case include enhancing existing hosting capacity maps through standardization, interconnection approval process duration, interconnection cost information, utility upgrade project information, and corresponding forecast of hosting capacity updates.
MVP - Q2-Q4 2023	Efficient and Effective Access to Existing Customer Billing Data*	*Full functionality of the use case “Efficient and Effective Access to Existing Customer Billing Data” has been delayed from inclusion in the upcoming MVP release. However, development of a use case sandbox environment will be complete at the time of the MVP release. The sandbox environment will allow users to explore the “Efficient and Effective Access to Existing Customer Billing Data” use case functionality with sample dummy customer data sets. The full functionality of this use case will be scheduled in Phase 2 of Program development This use case will grant access electronically for a list of properties at the time of energy manager and data services contract signing, with no additional action required on behalf of the customer for the data services provider to access data for those properties at a later point (within the authorized timeframe). Currently, separate actions are required for each customer account at the time of the authorization request. Ideally, customer consent can be granted both in advance and at the moment of the request and via mobile phone. This use case would also help improve the timeliness of bill payment, reduce late fees and verify customer savings.
MVP - Q2-Q4 2023	Find and Filter Rate Options Across NYS IOU Utilities	This use case will allow Energy Service Entities (ESE) or government staff members to view a list of rates/tariffs across New York State utilities filterable by key criteria (e.g., rate name, rate type, location, etc.), in order to quickly navigate to pertinent rate information. This use case will also enable access to rate and tariffs information in a consistent and machine readable format; removing the need to manually review individual PDFs over time or visit individual utility websites to see what the available rates are. Users will be able to export the list in order to use it for analysis and integration with their own analysis tools.
MVP - Q2-Q4 2023	Access to Basic Rate Data and Tariff Book for Individual Rate	This use case will allow users to see all information about a single rate in one place; enabling those estimating energy customer bills to access relevant data more easily and precisely than they are currently able to. Specific features of this use case include: making rate parameters that change slowly (rate periods, Holidays, Seasons, minimum and other fixed charges, and baseline allowances aka tiered block rates) available in structured format, and facilitating easier navigation to the section of the tariff book where rate parameters for a given rate can be found (which includes easier navigation to both the most recent version of the tariff book itself and historical versions of the tariff book).

Interested stakeholders were previously invited to participate in an initial process to identify, characterize, and prioritize IEDR use cases. The compiled use case submissions are available below. NYSERDA may publish this use case information in additional formats.

A compilation of all submissions is available here via Excel and PDF.

Stakeholders are still welcome to submit use cases beyond the July 23, 2021 deadline which has passed. However, these use cases may not be able to be processed and prioritized as part of Phase One activities, depending on when the use case is received. Stakeholders may submit comments individually or as a member of a group.

Follow this link to the IEDR ideas portal to submit your use case suggestion.