Community Energy Planning
Creating a community energy plan can help you community to decide where the energy (such as heat and electricity) in your community will come from in the future, and how it will be used. The goal is to develop a plan that incorporates the community members vision for the future energy system, and tries address topics such as :
- Protection of the environment
- Increased energy independence and self-sufficiency
- Economic development
- Energy resilience
- Energy affordability
Energy plans should reflect local values and culture. The person holding the space for the discussions and coordinating the technical experts hired is often referred to as community energy champion (CEC).
Compared to the other provinces, that have programs in place to encourage and finance energy community planning, the situation in Québec is particular : The grid electricity is cheap and relatively clean, and there are not many First Nations communities left unconnected to the grid, so there is less incentive to go through this process. There are also no explicit programs to finance these activities.
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Community energy planning can be broadly defined as the creation of a plan that aims to improve local energy management and strategically addresses community needs (Tozer, 2012).
Environmental, economic, and social benefits are often at the forefront of these plans and have been identified as motivations for undertaking the creation of a community energy plan (Tozer, 2012).
Community energy initiatives are argued to be advantageous for several reasons. First, scholars propose that community energy planning initiatives could be considered precursors in a larger transition towards an energy system that is decentralized, sustainable, and secure (e.g. Goldthau, 2014; Rae & Bradley, 2012). Second, as behavior change, land-use planning, and utility provision are influenced at the local level, a multi-scalar approach to addressing sustainability issues is presumed to be effective in managing transitions (Burch, 2010; Rae & Bradley, 2012). Third, and perhaps most prevalently, energy scholars assert that an increased role for civil society and communities will enhance public support and create a ‘sense of ownership’ (e.g. Gustafsson et al., 2015; Hoffman, 2005; Rae & Bradley, 2012; St. Denis & Parker, 2009
Because community energy plans are theoretically more reflective of local values and needs than more traditional models of energy governance and ownership, motivations such as local environmental protection, community resilience, economic growth and development, as well as protection from the price volatility of energy and fossil fuels are prevalent (St. Denis & Parker, 2009; Tozer, 2012).
Where some communities may possess the capacity and social capital to enable energy planning and subsequent implementation of ideas, many communities lack these resources (Avelino & Wittmayer, 2015; Creamer et al., 2018).
Though many communities have demonstrated success in community energy planning, several gaps remain evident. A narrow focus on municipal facilities rather than community-wide initiatives, difficulties in addressing behavior changes in residents, and limited community capacity are reported to be common problems (Burch, 2010; Creamer et al., 2018; Tozer, 2012).
Themes of self-sufficiency and independence are widespread in relation to Indigenous energy initiatives. Several scholars suggest that the opportunity to assert community-defined goals through energy planning and development can result in independence from the state-led processes in which many Indigenous communities operate to varying degrees; federal and provincial government agencies, for example, can be perceived as perpetuating colonial structures of the past (Borrows, 1997; Krupa et al., 2013; Rae & Bradley, 2012; Rezaei & Dowlatabadi, 2015)
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