A Community Energy Plan (CEP) is a way for a community to work together towards a better environment for all residents. By using the state’s Energy Master Plan (EMP) as a guide to develop goals and strategies to increase clean energy production, reduce energy use and harmful emissions, and develop sustainable strategies.
The Community Energy Plan is created through a task force comprised of government officials, businesses and residents working to first benchmark community energy use and production and then developing goals and timelines to work towards the state’s EMP goals.
The New Jersey Board of Public Utilities (NJBPU) has created a grant to help you start the process and to implement your Community Energy Plan. The first step is to create a task force to write the plan. When creating the task force you want to make sure you include a diverse snapshot of your community including government, schools, businesses, large institutions, small businesses, transportation operators, residents, and local nonprofits.
The task force will first establish benchmarks for energy consumption, energy generation, emissions, vehicle miles traveled and any other relevant data. Those benchmarks will help determine how much work needs to be done and what the community’s priorities will be.
From there the task force can establish milestones designed to hit the EMP’s long-term goals and can detail options for how to get there. Those goals, milestones, and strategies will be the basis of the Community Energy Plan.
Find out more about Community Energy Planning grants here. 
