Roles and Responsibilities of Users

Roles and Responsibilities of Users

Users are at the heart of day-to-day operations: they are the ones who actually use the energy community’s services, view data, give feedback for decisions, and follow their own consumption, costs and the community’s operation through the Decent.ec portal.

1. Who counts as a user in the energy community?

A user is anyone who:

• is a member of the community (e.g. household, tenant, employee, site manager),
• has been given access to the Decent.ec portal,
• can view their own data (consumption, costs, statistics, etc.),
• participates in the community’s operation (e.g. communication, feedback, voting, supporting decision-making).

Users are not administrators: they are primarily entitled to view and use their own data and the system, and to give feedback - not to manage other members.

2. Main roles and responsibilities of users

2.1. Monitoring and understanding own data

Users are responsible for:

• regularly checking their consumption and generation data,
• verifying that the data looks reasonable (no strange spikes or obvious errors),
• using the Statistics module (charts, summaries) to support more conscious energy use,
• informing the administrator if data clearly looks wrong (e.g. zero consumption, unrealistically high values).

2.2. Communication and community participation

Users should:

• follow important announcements, news and notifications (e.g. changes, maintenance, new rules),
• participate in community discussions where relevant (e.g. ideas, priorities, planned investments),
• communicate respectfully with other members (posts, comments, groups),
• avoid sharing offensive, misleading, or clearly irrelevant content.

2.3. Responsible energy use

Users commit to:

• striving for conscious, efficient energy use in line with the goals of the energy community,
• adjusting their behaviour - where possible - based on portal data (e.g. shifting use away from peak periods, switching off unnecessary loads),
• supporting the community’s long-term sustainability and financial goals with their everyday decisions.

2.4. Data protection and security

From a user perspective, it is important to:

• keep login details secure (password, two-factor authentication where available),
• not share their account with others,
• only share data with others that they explicitly agree to share (e.g. not editing someone else’s profile, not passing billing details to unauthorised people),
• consciously configure settings related to privacy, cookies and voluntary data sharing in the Settings menu (where these options are available).

2.5. Feedback, error reporting and complaints

Users are not passive:

• if they notice an error, they inform the administrator (e.g. wrong meter mapping, missing data, login issues),
• in case of a complaint, they use the channel defined by the community (e-mail, portal form, complaint-handling procedure),
• they can also make suggestions on how to improve community operation, portal usability or communication.

3. User roles on the Decent.ec portal

Within the Decent.ec portal, users typically appear in one of the following roles (exact labels may vary by project):

3.1. Community member (standard user)

• Sees their own consumption/generation data, billing information and statistics.
• Can access the groups and channels assigned to them.
• Can post and comment if community rules allow it.
• Does not manage other users or change community-level settings.

3.2. Viewer / read-only user

• Has limited, read-only access.
• Typically used for: municipal representatives, project partners, management who need to view aggregated statistics but do not operate the system.
• Cannot edit data or change permissions.

3.3. Special user roles (optional)

Some projects may define special user roles, such as:

• Site manager - can view all meters and consumers at a specific site.
• Pilot user / tester - tries new features and gives feedback for development.

The exact content of these roles is always defined by the specific energy community or project.

4. Everyday use of Decent.ec from a user perspective

On a daily or weekly basis, a typical user will:

1. Log in
   • Access the Decent.ec portal (via web or mobile, where available).
   • Change their password or set up two-factor authentication if needed and supported.
2. Review profile and settings
   • Check personal details (name, language, time zone).
   • Configure notifications (which events should trigger e-mail or push notifications - e.g. new invoice, important announcement, reply to a comment).
3. Use groups and community features
   • Access their assigned group(s)
   • View posts and comments; comment where relevant.
   • Read announcements, news and important information.
4. View statistics and consumption data
   • Browse daily, weekly, monthly charts.
   • Compare their own or household energy use with previous periods.
   • Monitor generation if they have local production (e.g. solar PV).
5. Check billing and cost information
   • Use the Billing section to view invoices, fees and balances.
   • Verify billing data and contact the administrator if something looks wrong.
6. Send feedback, complaints or questions
   • Use the defined communication channels to contact the admin/operator with questions, problems or suggestions.

5. Best practices for users

• Stay up to date: log in from time to time, check notifications and statistics.
• Check your data: if something looks very strange (extreme consumption, missing data), report it.
• Communicate respectfully: support constructive collaboration on community channels.
• Protect your access: do not share your password and handle billing and personal information carefully.
• Give feedback: if something works well or could be improved, let the admins know - this improves the experience for you and for others.