FNPA and Community Energy Planning
Community energy planning helps a community identify ways that it can reduce energy and carbon emissions while also implementing community and utility scale renewable energy opportunities for offsetting costs as well as investment and business opportunities.
The Community Energy Plan is a guiding document that can be utilized in future community plans, funding proposals, as well as developing community and utility scale renewable energy projects. A well thought out community energy plan creates a setting for renewable energy projects to be developed in a way that aligns with the values of a community.
A key part of the community energy plan is engagement—knowing what the community’s needs and wants will allow for the creation of a plan that is optimized for each community. Engagement efforts by FNPA with communities includes interviews, surveys, meeting with leaders and elders, and a community energy visioning workshop. These energy visioning workshops help community members of all ages put on paper, in the form of writing and pictures, what their needs and wants are for the community. This engagement is used to form a tailor-made Energy Vision Statement for the community, which is a living statement that helps guide the work and aids the community in achieving their renewable energy and energy efficiency goals.
Community energy planning can help mitigate risks, and has the potential to lead to widespread economic, health, social, resilience and environmental benefits. FNPA ensures the success of their community energy plans by defining how the plan will enable the community to meet its economic, environmental, health, social and resilience goals.
To date, FNPA has done four community energy plans for the communities of Beaver Lake Cree Nation, Driftpile Cree Nation, Swan River First Nation, and Cold Lake First Nations. Two community energy plans for the communities of Onion Lake and Southend are in progress, and FNPA is working together in collaboration with SaskPower to deliver more community energy plans to Indigenous communities around the province.