This district energy digitalization self-assessment is designed to help organizations evaluate their readiness and identify strategic opportunities for improvement. The questionnaire takes approximately 20-30 minutes to complete and covers six critical areas: organization objectives, data infrastructure, technical systems, decision-making processes, digital transformation challenges, and implementation readiness.

Before You Begin

Gather key stakeholders from operations, maintenance, IT, and management teams to ensure comprehensive responses. Having technical documentation about your current control systems, data historians, and communication protocols will help you provide accurate answers.

How to Proceed

Work through each section systematically, providing specific examples and quantitative data where possible. Don’t worry if you can’t answer every question completely (identifying knowledge gaps is part of the assessment value).

After Completion

Use your responses to prioritize digitalization initiatives, develop implementation timelines, and build business cases for investment. Consider sharing results with your team to align on strategic priorities and next steps.

Section 1: Organization Objectives and Strategy

What are your organization’s top 3 challenges that you believe digitalization could help address? Examples: high operational costs, inefficient energy usage, maintenance challenges, service reliability issues

Have you established specific goals for your digitalization initiative? If so, please describe them. Examples: 15% reduction in energy costs, 20% improvement in maintenance efficiency

Which processes are most critical to your operations and would benefit most from digitalization? Examples: distribution monitoring, equipment maintenance, energy production optimization

Who are the key stakeholders who will champion and benefit from your digitalization initiatives? Consider: operations teams, maintenance staff, management, customers, financial teams

What timeframe are you considering for implementing your digitalization initiative? Options: 0-6 months, 6-12 months, 1-2 years, 2+ years

How would you characterize your organization’s current approach to data collection and management?

  • Primarily manual processes with minimal automation
  • Basic automated data collection but limited integration between systems
  • Moderately integrated data systems with some automated analysis
  • Highly integrated data infrastructure with advanced analytics capabilities

What percentage of your operational data is currently:

  • Collected automatically: ____%
  • Collected manually: ____%
  • Not collected at all: ____%

How frequently is operational data currently collected and reviewed? Examples: real-time, hourly, daily, weekly, monthly

What are your biggest challenges with your current data management approach? Examples: data silos, incomplete data, manual collection errors, limited accessibility

Describe your current control systems for each area (complete as applicable):

Chilled Water Systems:

  • Control system manufacturer/model:
  • Age of system:
  • Integration capabilities:

Steam/Heating Systems:

  • Control system manufacturer/model:
  • Age of system:
  • Integration capabilities:

Cogeneration Systems:

  • Control system manufacturer/model:
  • Age of system:
  • Integration capabilities:

Data Infrastructure:

What data historians or databases do you currently use to store operational data? Examples: HanAra HanPrism, AVEVA PI, AVEVA eDNA, Canary Labs, GE Historian, dataPARC, custom SQL databases, none

How do users currently access operational data? (Select all that apply)

  • Control room workstations
  • Desktop applications on corporate network
  • Web-based dashboards
  • Mobile applications
  • Scheduled reports
  • Other:

What communication protocols are used in your current systems? (Select all that apply)

  • Modbus
  • BACnet
  • OPC UA/DA
  • MQTT
  • Proprietary protocols
  • Other:

How is operational data currently used in decision-making processes? Examples: daily operations meetings, maintenance planning, efficiency optimization

Which roles in your organization regularly use operational data in their work? Examples: operators, maintenance technicians, engineers, managers, executives

What types of analysis would be most valuable to your organization?

  • Real-time monitoring and alerts
  • Historical trend analysis
  • Performance benchmarking
  • Predictive maintenance
  • Energy management
  • Cost analysis
  • Other:

What are the most important metrics you currently track or would like to track? Examples: energy efficiency (kW/ton), fuel usage, uptime/reliability, maintenance costs

What do you see as the biggest obstacles to implementing a more comprehensive data management infrastructure?

  • Budget constraints
  • Legacy system integration challenges
  • Staff expertise/training
  • IT/OT coordination issues
  • Unclear ROI
  • Other:

Which capabilities would deliver the most immediate value to your organization?

  • Centralized data collection
  • Automated reporting
  • Advanced analytics and visualization
  • Predictive maintenance
  • Other:

How do you envision your ideal data management system would operate?

Has your organization allocated budget specifically for digitalization initiatives?

  • Yes, we have a dedicated budget
  • We have partial funding identified
  • No specific budget allocated yet

Do you have internal resources with data management/analytics expertise?

  • Yes, we have dedicated data specialists
  • We have some expertise but limited resources
  • No, we would need external support

Has your organization implemented any digitalization initiatives previously?

Who would be responsible for managing the implementation of a new data management infrastructure? Examples: IT department, operations team, project management office, external consultant

Questions About Your Results?

Completing this assessment provides valuable insights into your organization’s digitalization readiness and opportunities. If you’d like to discuss your findings or explore how other district energy organizations have approached similar challenges, we’re here to help.

We’re available to:

  • Discuss your assessment results and what they mean for your organization
  • Share insights from similar digitalization projects in the district energy sector
  • Connect you with resources and best practices from the industry
  • Answer questions about implementation approaches and technologies

Whether you’re just starting to explore district energy digitalization possibilities or ready to move forward with specific initiatives, feel free to reach out. We understand that every organization’s journey is unique, and we’re happy to provide guidance tailored to your situation.