Energy Efficiency Alberta hosts open house on community generation
Following the announcement of the Government of Alberta’s new Community Generation Program, Energy Efficiency Alberta along with energy experts participated in an open house to provide more information to people about how they can help get their community to generate greener electricity.
Community generation refers to renewable and alternative energy that is distribution system-connected and provides benefits to the community. This will allow communities and citizens to directly participate in energy projects and will give Albertans the ability to access renewable energy and generate revenue by selling electricity back to the grid.
The Government of Alberta is investing $200 million over 20 years in Climate Leadership Plan funds to launch the program which is expected to launch in June.
“The Community Generation Program was announced a few months ago and was allocated $200 million to Community Energy Generation projects within communities in Alberta,” said Rob Hamiluk, executive director of Climate Change Policy with Alberta Climate Change. “What we are doing right now is we are going to open houses in 14 different communities to build capacity among the communities for people to get involved in the program, to have the equipment and the tools that they need to apply to the program, and create projects that fit within the program.”
The program will help improve access to low-cost financing by providing revenue certainty, which will open doors to new projects that will support community benefits, create local jobs and increase investment. Eligible groups include, but are not limited to societies, condominium corporations, cooperatives, educational institutions, First Nations, Métis Settlements, municipalities and non-profit organizations.
“Some of the qualifications to get involved in the program is that you have to be a community, which is defined by the Alberta Small Scale Energy Regulation, and with that, according to that regulation, you have to have a Community Benefits Agreement in place through the regulation,” says Hamiluk. “It could be a community alone participating as a generator, it could be partnership with an existing generator, but really what it comes down to is that community benefit agreement which is unique in this case, there has to be a clear line from the project to the benefit that the community is getting and there will be formal agreements in place that will hold projects to that standard.”
Regulation was needed to establish new rules for small-scale generation in Alberta, including the set up and operation of the projects. The new regulation will also reduce regulatory and financial barriers within Alberta’s existing framework and helps set the community groups eligible for community generation.
“There are challenges with starting and that is why we are doing these open houses,” says Hamiluk. “A small project, whether that be a community-led project or a small private project, there are regulations in play that they have to make sure to follow when connecting to the grid.
“That can be pretty daunting for a small player in terms of moving through the regulatory process. If you move along that and don’t have any support it can take a long time and it can cause your project to not go forward. What we are trying to do here is try to bring that awareness to the extent possible and connect people so smaller projects aren’t prevented from moving forward by some of those perceived barriers in the past. We are trying to break them down.”
Energy Efficiency Alberta has programs leading up to the official launch of the program later this summer, including the electric car charging stations which will be installed across the province. The detailed program design is underway and may establish criteria in addition to the requirements made in this regulation.
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