Earlier this year the Energy Networks Association (ENA) came to Explain with the challenge of supporting fleet operators through decarbonisation. The brief was to help organisations that lacked experience navigate the technical maze of applying for a new or upgraded electrical connection to support the electrification of their transport assets.

ENA represents the UK’s electricity networks and was facing a critical need. Fleet operators, many of them small businesses, were unsure where to begin when it came to decarbonisation and making their fleet more green. Businesses didn’t know who their Distribution Network Operator (DNO) was, what information to gather, or what technical terms they’d encounter. Existing guidance was fragmented, inconsistent, and often too advanced for those at the start of their EV transition journey.

To close that knowledge and experience gap, ENA wanted to develop the Transport Connections Guidance, an interactive digital tool designed to walk users through the early stages of preparing for new or upgraded electrical connection. Available for free online, the tool supports all organisations, including airports, blue light services, public transport providers, and logistics businesses, in planning the switch to electric transport assets. 

Explain played a pivotal role in shaping the Transport Connections Guidance tool, leading the research that underpinned its development and ensuring it truly reflected the needs of its users. Through in-depth interviews and workshops with fleet managers and sustainability leads at various stages of their decarbonisation journey, we identified common barriers, including unfamiliar terminology to uncertainty over who to contact. These insights fed directly into the tool’s decision-tree structure, mapping over 1,000 possible user scenarios. Working closely with ENA, DNOs, trade associations, and government bodies, we translated complex processes into clear, accessible guidance, iteratively testing and refining the tool to make sure it genuinely supported users from the very first click.

What the Guidance Tool Offers

The tool is built around a simple, user-friendly input form. Users enter key details such as:

• Location, to determine the local DNO via postcode lookup
• Business type and size (e.g. number of employees)
• Current electricity demand

Based on that, the tool then…

• Explains technical terms (like maximum demand, smart charging, flexible connections) to help non-specialists understand what they’ll encounter and the options available to them
• Summarises what users need to gather before applying for a connection e.g. load profiles, charger types, and existing electricity usage and signposts where to find that information
• Guides users toward their relevant DNO resources and tools tailored to their needs

How Explain’s Work Supported the Tool

1. Discovery research: We led interviews and workshops with fleet operators at different stages, some well along their journey, others who were just starting, to explore options to uncover common challenges like unfamiliar terminology, unknown processes, and uncertainty over DNO identification.
2. Prototyping the decision?tree interface: From those insights, we drafted a logical “flowchart” with different user journeys made up of information captured through interviews, feeding into early wireframes and content flows.
3. Stakeholder collaboration: ENA coordinated feedback from DNOs, trade bodies such as BVRLA and RHA, and government partners. Explain distilled this into clear and accessible content, ensuring each stakeholder voice was represented accurately.
4. Iterative user testing: Early versions of the tool were tested both with experienced operators and novices to ensure accessibility and utility. The feedback loop into content tone, navigation, and question logic was continuous.
5. Content and finalisation: Explain authored much of the explanatory material within the tool and ensured terminology matched real-world understanding. The result is a polished product that genuinely “hand?holds” users through to an application-ready state.

Why It Matters

Launched in June 2025, the Transport Connections Guidance tool is the first interactive UK-wide resource specifically designed to support fleet decarbonisation at the pre-application stage. 

Strategic insight and qualitative research turned into a practical digital solution with real sector value, facilitated by the team here at Explain. By bridging the gap between fleet operators, DNOs, government bodies, and trade associations, the tool injects clarity and confidence into the journey to electrification.

This project is a great example of Explain’s signature approach and used rigorous, stakeholder-informed research to drive user?centred tools that support industries as they decarbonise and digitise. This tool is helping to eliminate confusion, unlock capacity, and accelerate the transition to electric transport, for organisations of all sizes across the UK.

If you're interested in speaking to the team about partnering for a project, we’d love to hear from you. Get in touch with the team by emailing info@explainresearch.co.uk.