Community Energy Management

overview of grey building with grey roof with solar panels.

Community energy management spans the traditional silos of current and long range planning, policy, operations, engineering, transportation, finance, and others. This inter-disciplinary sequence of six on-line courses provides a unique opportunity to refresh disciplines that you are already familiar with by viewing them through an energy lens while introducing new tools and concepts.

Community energy management education will provide the knowledge and resources you need to manage the art and science of saving energy, emissions, and money across the community.

How it works

Each fully online course delivers 30 hours of material (2.0 BCIT course credits), which includes online content, readings, videos, self-test quizzes, two assignments, participation in the student forum, and a final exam. A two-hour live online instructed session to review course materials and help keep students on track will be delivered every second week from 6:00 p.m. – 7:30 p.m. (PST). (Note: alternative times will be considered if there are many students from a much different time zone). Completion of course work is flexible during the 5 week period for each course and is anticipated to take around 5 hours per week on average.

Courses

CESA 5110 – Introduction to Community Energy & Emissions Planning

This course describes the purpose, components and objectives of a community energy and emissions plan (CEEP) and the reasons communities create them. After completing the course, students will be able to initiate, prepare and implement a community energy plan. Course materials differentiate between community energy planning and corporate energy planning and describe the essential elements of energy and emissions plans.

Students will be able to:

Navigate the process of creating and implementing a plan
Identify funding sources and strategies
Manage project consultants
Design a CEEP that can be successfully implemented.

CESA 5210 – Community-Based Renewable Energy

This course provides an introduction to sources of renewable energy for heat and power and how they can support sustainability, energy and greenhouse gas management goals across the community.

Students will be able to:

Identify sources of renewable energy for heat and power and how they fit into the community energy and emissions planning process.
Move from project concept to implementation and work with consultants to develop pre-feasibility and feasibility studies.
Explain factors affecting project viability, outline issues that may arise during project planning and implementation and identify project planning and construction funding sources.

CESA 5310 – Green Energy & Local Economic Development

This course provides an introduction to the wide range of green energy strategies and local economic development opportunities for communities. Green energy is sourced from clean and renewable sources.

Students will be able to:

Identify green energy project development pathways, provide case study examples and describe how green energy can attract investment and infrastructure development.
Link a healthy environment to health impacts and costs.
Justify green energy projects by totaling estimated energy spending in a community and demonstrating how green energy can create jobs, keep energy dollars circulating locally and improve community resilience.

CESA 5410 – Financing & Governance for Green Energy Systems

This course provides an introduction to investing in green energy systems and the choices and trade-offs associated with different ownership and governance arrangements. The legal, tax and incorporation considerations involved in establishing a green energy utility will be explained, and the financing options available to local governments and First Nations will be covered. The importance of public engagement when developing projects will also be explored.

Students will be able to identify case studies and integrate lessons learned.

CESA 5510 – Reducing Energy Use in New & Existing Buildings

This course provides an introduction to the role that buildings play in community energy planning and how buildings are categorized and rated for energy efficiency in Canada.

Students will be able to:

Identify the regulatory, policy and program approaches to reducing energy use and encouraging renewable energy in new buildings.
Explain the different regulatory, policy and program approaches required to address energy use and renewable energy in existing buildings.

CESA 5610 – Low Carbon Transportation

This course provides an introduction to how to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and energy use in the transportation sector.

Students will be able to:

Implement the transportation pyramid as a framework for community energy management.
Develop and implement policies that support active transportation, low carbon vehicles and transportation behavior change.
Explain how management of corporate fleets can support reductions in community-based transportation emissions.

“I have to say, the course has been fantastic in how it has helped me bridge between deep energy audits and CEEP outcomes. I believe this is why we have been able to get buy-in so quickly for our project.”

P. Amsler (Nativus Energy Ltd.), Manitoba

Contact us

Please contact Alexandre Hebert (Temporary contact) at Alexandre_Hebert@bcit.ca for approval and submit a current resume for review.

In partnership with

BCIT and the Community Energy Association have partnered to develop a new series of courses in the emerging field of community energy management. BC Hydro has provided funding to make this possible.