Invisible is better: technology as a servant to empower the vulnerable in the energy transition
Invisible is better: technology as a servant to empower the vulnerable in the energy transition
Publish Date: 2026-04-22 09:13:00
Source Domain: www.youris.com
“In summer it gets very hot here, and in winter it’s very cold. So I was curious to see if there was a way to overcome this inconvenience.” These are not exceptional words; anyone might use them to explain why they decided to get involved in an experiment to better handle domestic energy. What makes them exceptional is that, in this case, they are spoken by 72-year-old Simonetta Tazzer. An age that makes many things more difficult, especially when technological adaptations are required.
The experiment in question is that of Borgo Mazzini Smart Cohousing in Treviso, part of the Italian pilot for the DEDALUS project—an initiative focused on human-centred energy innovation. Here, the challenge was to ensure that innovation remains an invisible ally rather than a technical burden. Silvia Palma, a project manager at EnEA who worked closely on the Treviso pilot, explains that the residents’ feedback was the actual engine of the development: “Simonetta collaborated with us to help train the services and algorithms, enabling us to personalise her apartment’s comfort levels and encouraging energy flexibility while strictly maintaining her domestic well-being.” Every morning, Simonetta receives a WhatsApp message with three simple temperature options. For her, the logic is straightforward: “It is a very simple thing that even I can understand, even though I am not technological at all and I am of a certain age.”
However, the path to inclusion is rarely straight. In the Danish DEDALUS pilot in Herning, researchers confronted a complex social reality: the attempt to engage a multicultural neighbourhood through traditional communication methods was met with near-total silence. Sending letters or providing apps to a community where language barriers are significant and institutional trust is low proved ineffective. Thomas Lyngvad and Henrik Lund Stærmose, https://www.linkedin.com/in/henrikstaermose/ who oversaw the pilot,…
