Strategic Energy Planning

Stakeholder and key community member engagement is central to the development of the strategic energy plan. Your Tribe should consider the following stakeholders:

• Local utility representatives
• Tribal leaders
• Community leaders
• Local facilities managers
• Housing manager
• Environmental resource managers
• Land office
• Community businesses and industry
• Regional intertribal organizations
• Community members
• State- or regional-level administrators with an energy focus
• School districts

Remember, Step 1 is important because you are proposing to spend public money for public benefit. You need to get buy-in from stakeholders. These people will tell you important things about energy use and current activities.

Please note that this step often happens concurrently with step 2, Form the Leadership Team.    

For more information, please visit pages 4 to 6 in the Strategic Energy Plan and Planning Handbook.

A strategic energy plan is accomplished with effective leadership that drives the process and provides continuity across many diverse stakeholders and interests. The importance of identifying a tribal energy champion cannot be understated. As the number of tribal energy opportunities and challenges expand during development and implementation, dedicated leadership and continuity provided by the tribal energy champion will be required.

Your leadership ideally has a few active advocates:

• Champion: An executive-level authority that will champion the process.
• Plan Advocate: At least one on-the-ground advocate to drive the process daily.
• Leadership Team: A cross-cutting group of stakeholders to provide broader support and advise on decision-making.

These roles may be held in several differing configurations, but having clear and visible leadership, and the ability to motivate others to keep the process underway, is vital. Like all true champions, tribal energy champions are not often appointed, but emerge through their innate interest and hence commitment to leadership. Only you can identify your tribal energy champion. Look for the interest, the commitment to follow-through, and the leadership, and then surround this person with expertise and support.

Remember, Step 2 is important because a leadership team has the power to make decisions, direct funding resources, and promote the project throughout the process.

Please note that this step often happens concurrently with step 1, Identify & Convene Stakeholders.

For more information, please visit pages 7 and 8 in the Strategic Energy Plan and Planning Handbook.

Creating a strategic plan should start with a vision, or goal, in mind. Where does your Tribe want to go? A primary purpose of the planning process is to clearly articulate your community’s long-term vision and goals about its energy future and to define how your community will achieve those aspirations. Having a clear vision of what your Tribe seeks to accomplish keeps subsequent discussion focused on the issues that matter most to the community. Developing a common vision with input from key community members, and across the stakeholder group, helps assure that the broader community agrees with and will support the actions that follow.

Identifying your Tribe’s priorities assist with developing a unified vision, as well as narrows the types of energy activities and projects that will fit the community’s needs. Some examples of common energy-related priorities include:

• Assuring affordable and reliable energy
• Reducing infrastructure redevelopment and maintenance costs
• Strengthening economic development
• Building workforce and job skills
• Reducing environmental impacts
• Diversifying energy supply
• Using local resources
• Saving tribal members’ energy costs
• Supporting community engagement.

Examples of energy vision statements include:

• “To provide electric, natural gas, water, wastewater treatment and related services at competitive prices, while contributing to the economy of the Navajo Nation, consistent with the improvement of the health and wealth of the residents of the Navajo Nation, and the employment of the Navajo people.” Navajo Tribal Utility Authority
• “We ensure that the members of the Southern Ute Indian Tribe receive maximum benefit from the energy and mineral resources located on their Reservation while at the same time minimizing the impact of extraction of the resources on the natural and cultural environment.” Southern Ute Indian Tribe Department of Energy
• In March 2022, the Red Lake Band of Chippewa Indians became the first Tribe to win federal approval for its Tribal Energy Development Organization (TEDO), Twenty-First Century Tribal Energy, Inc. The vision statement for this organization could be stated as follows: “The Red Lake Band of Chippewa Indians has exercised sovereign authority over its energy resources, is energy independent, is not reliant on outside sources for electricity, and provides greater energy security for our people’s comfort and prosperity.”

Remember, Step 3 is important because a well-articulated energy vision provides the motivation for action and the focus for choices encountered throughout the process.

For more information, please visit pages 9 and 10 in the Strategic Energy Plan and Planning Handbook.

Any form of energy planning—whether it be for an individual building, a Tribe, or a country—necessarily starts with understanding the building's, Tribe’s, or country's energy needs. What is the load? What are the services that are being provided or need to be provided? How much is being provided today? By what energy sources? And finally, how are these energy needs expected to grow in the future, as population expands, and as local economic activities develop?

An effective strategic plan needs to build upon what has already been accomplished in the community before establishing goals and actions for the future. In addition, the energy plan will be carried out in the context of the state, regional, and utility regulations, policies, and programs. Therefore, a clear assessment of the energy environment is vital to the success of your plan.

Energy environment assessments commonly have the following parts:

• A review of the community’s current energy use baseline and forecasted energy use, including:
  • Current and forecasted energy usage in government, residential, commercial, and industrial buildings
  • Current and forecasted energy usage for government operations, including water and wastewater treatment, heating fuel transportation, and waste collection and disposal Available energy resources
  • Current and forecasted energy use for private and public transportation, as well as government vehicle fleet Institutional infrastructure. (Energy suppliers, etc.)
  • Current energy programs, including government, utility, non-profit, and other Inventory of the external energy landscape
• An understanding of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT analysis) to the local energy environment.
• Inventory of the external energy landscape, including state, regional, and utility policies, programs, projects, and plans.
• List of current energy systems and energy resources used and understanding of the existing energy market.

In energy planning, it is critical to understand the energy loads that are driving the need for new supplies. This should start with the design of new residential, commercial, and industrial facilities, because once they are built, the energy requirements and bills will be determined. Energy-efficiency retrofits are often possible, but it is always cheaper in the long run to include building envelope and efficiency measures during initial construction.

For existing facilities, it is important to get accurate records of monthly energy bills and assess the range of energy efficiency and conservation improvements that could be made to the building structure and appliance loads before committing to new energy supplies. When considering the total cost over the life of a project, it is nearly always cheaper to save energy than buy new energy.

By combining the residential, commercial, and industrial loads throughout your Tribe's lands; and assessing the need for growth in these loads (population growth and new housing, as well as commercial or new industrial growth), your Tribe will be well-positioned to balance the opportunities for improved energy efficiency and conservation with the opportunities for new energy supply.

Remember, Step 4 is important because a community energy baseline is the starting point for all analysis and planning. Understanding your utility, state, and regional context provides information on resources available to you.

For more information, please visit pages 11 through 14 in the Strategic Energy Plan and Planning Handbook.

Establishing primary goals will help determine the best projects to meet your Tribe’s energy objectives. It is crucial that your stakeholders define the scope of their strategic energy plan and understand their goals are crucial during this step. Increasingly, tribal communities are setting specific goals related to energy savings, sustainability, and reduction in the use of diesel fuel. Articulating and promoting high-level goals sends a strong policy message to your community members and stakeholders and provides an important focus for a variety of energy projects planning and implementation activities. Similar goals have been set in other communities and can vary widely. For example: 

• Reduce total, current, community-wide fossil fuel consumption by 50% by 2030.
• Climate and Energy Action Plan, City of Eugene, Oregon
• The goal is to ultimately eliminate the Tribe’s carbon footprint, be energy self-sufficient, and to be a provider of carbon-free energy to others.
• Project Greenfire Goals, Forest County Potawatomi Community, Wisconsin

Once a stakeholder process is underway, the larger goals can be broken down into more community-driven specifics. For example, how much of that goal will be met with energy efficiency, and how much from renewable energy? How much will come from tribal operations, and how much will be promoted in the private sector? Answering questions like these provide more insight into community wants and needs and increases the effectiveness of the overall program.

Goals that address detailed actions will be more effective if they are specific, measurable, actionable, realistic, and time-bound (SMART goals):

Specific: Be sure goals are clear and have enough detail to adequately focus on the objective. When goals are specific, they tell your community exactly what is expected, why it is important, who is involved, where it is going to happen, and which attributes are important.

Measurable: Be sure that there is a way to assess that the outcome shows a change in the number of units or a relative change in baseline conditions. If your goals are not measurable, your Tribe may not know whether they are making progress toward their successful completion.

Actionable: Goals should be realistic and attainable by your community. The best goals may require the your Tribe to stretch a bit to achieve them but are not unattainable or below standard performance.

Realistic: The goal should be clearly achievable within the timeframe, with the personnel, and with other resources available.

Time-bound: Be sure to set a clear time frame for goal completion or outline a sequential order among milestones.

Remember, Step 5 is important because specific and actionable goals provide the framework for choosing among alternatives and designing actions.

Please note that this step often happens concurrently with step 6, Prioritize Energy Projects & Programs.

For more information, please visit pages 15 and 16 in the Strategic Energy Plan and Planning Handbook.

This step typically will determine which strategies will achieve the greatest results with the least amount of effort or money. Your Tribe should use the baseline and program and project ideas to develop a ranking system to understand cost-effectiveness of different projects. There are several ways to measure cost-effectiveness and the one that is most appropriate will largely depend on the program goals. The evaluation should include: 

• Energy resource options analysis which establishes the obvious resources that should be considered. Equally important is to screen out options that are not likely feasible so that valuable time effort is not devoted to such options. However, it is preferable at this stage to be more inclusive. If the opportunity for a particular energy resource is positive but unknown (e.g., biomass residue), it is better to include it in the list for further evaluation, rather than prematurely eliminate it from further consideration.
  • For more in-depth information on the Energy Options Analysis process, check out the “How to Select Energy Options” webinar or review the webinar slide deck.
• Determine the scope of the strategic energy plan to consider what to include or exclude in each topic. Categorization of potential projects is important step, examples include:
  • Ongoing energy management
  • Information & data gathering/tracking
  • Internal/institutional capacity building
  • Energy efficiency
  • Building energy codes/standards
  • Energy generation – residential/facility scale
  • Energy generation – community/utility scale
  • Utility regulation and/or formation
  • Transportation
  • Energy related business development
  • Education / Workforce development
• Brainstorm projects and programs to generate ideas for potential strategies to meet the Tribe’s energy goals.

Remember, Step 6 is important because every Tribe is a resource-limited and by pursuing the strategies with the highest impact first, your community can build a record of success that should free up additional support for these efforts in the future.

Please note that this step often happens concurrently with step 5, Develop Goals.
 

For more information, please visit pages 17 and 18 in the Strategic Energy Plan and Planning Handbook.

Numerous options are available to fund and finance your Tribe’s energy projects through federal and state agencies as well as non-profit grants and private investments. The primary options available through the government come in the form of grants or loans. In short, government grants fund projects that will benefit a community and don’t require a repayment, while loans are borrowed money for community assistance that require a repayment. To learn more, visit the USAGov’s “What’s the difference between government grants and loans?” page.

Below are several funding and financing resources available for your Tribe to explore that can assist with paying for your clean energy project. Your tribe is encouraged to explore funding opportunities available through other government agencies that are not listed here.

• The Department of Energy’s Office of Indian Energy (DOE IE) maintains an extensive listing of grants and opportunities on their Current Funding Opportunities webpage and Ongoing Funding Opportunities webpage.
• Office of Indian Energy 2023 Tribal Energy Webinar Series: Funding for Transitioning Tribal Communities to Clean Energy
• The Loan Programs Office supports tribal investment in energy-related projects by providing direct loans or partial loan guarantees to federally recognized Tribes including Alaska Native village or regional or village corporations; or a Tribal Energy Development Organization (TEDO). Visit the Tribal Energy Financing webpage to learn more.
• The U.S. Department of the Interior Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) supports economic development by offering access to capital through grant opportunities. Visit BIA’s Grant webpage to learn more.
• The Database of State Incentives for Renewables and Efficiency is a comprehensive source that provides information incentives and policies that support renewable energy and energy efficiency in the United States.  
• The Interagency Working Group on Coal and Power Plant Communities & Economic Revitalization maintains a searchable database of funding sources. The database is not tribal nor energy specific, but users can use filters to screen the sources by purpose and eligible recipient.

Remember, Step 7 is important because clean energy projects can be expensive, and loans and grants can be a vital element from taking your Tribe’s vision to construction. 

For more information, please visit pages 19 through 22 in the Strategic Energy Plan and Planning Handbook.

After developing a vision statement, identifying a champion, gathering information on energy needs and forecasts, exploring energy resource options and technology preferences, and evaluating options within the context of tribal priorities, it becomes a relatively straightforward process to define and outline the Tribe’s strategic plan.

While developing the plan, your Tribe should always be aware that:

• A strategic plan is a living and dynamic document, changing based on the Tribe’s needs and desires.
• Energy technologies are rapidly evolving and what may not be economic today may be the solution of choice tomorrow.
• Different technical solutions often call for different institutional implementation arrangements. Multiple approaches are acceptable if the resources are available to pursue multiple options.
• While it is the champion's job to keep the process and opportunities moving forward, there are extensive resources and expertise available to the Tribe through several federal programs and offices.

Your strategic plan can include the following elements:

• The vision statement.
• The Tribe’s energy baseline and forecast.
• A description of the options that appear to be viable.
• A discussion of the preferred institutional arrangements and the activities necessary to put those institutions in place.
• Key personnel and necessary external support.
• A timeline for implementation.
• One or more appendices with baseline energy information & data (E.g., available energy resources, energy consumption & cost data, energy tariffs, potential funding sources, information resources, records from past projects etc.)

Remember, Step 8 is important because this will summarize all the data, information, vision, goals, and priorities identified during the energy planning process and act as guidance for your Tribe’s pathway towards energy sovereignty.

For more information, please visit page 23 in the Strategic Energy Plan and Planning Handbook.

Once adopted, the strategic energy plan is ideally treated as a “living” document. It is important to:

• Consider having the plan formally adopted by your tribal council.
• Establish how often your plan will be updated
• Update your plan when:
  • Energy projects listed in the original strategic energy plan are completed
  • Your community’s population increases or decreases
  • Overall energy demand and supply shifts 
• Refer to the plan when selecting an energy project or program and measuring success
• Use the plan to reflect and verify that projects are moving the Tribe closer to its stated vision and goals.  

Remember, Step 9 is important because sustained energy planning fosters community interest and understanding of the energy landscape, identifying where a community is in that landscape, and more importantly, setting goals and prioritizing projects that move your Tribe to its sustainable energy destination.

For more information, please visit page 24 in the Strategic Energy Plan and Planning Handbook.