Folding community engagement into decision making: A continuous process to increase equity in the energy system

Abstract

Utilities and state energy regulators have historically incorporated community participation late in the process of creating programs and policies, often after most or all decisions have already been made. As more organizations seek to address energy inequity, they have engaged stakeholders in a variety of ways and at different stages of program development with varying levels of success. In this paper, we propose a continuous participation and feedback approach to system equity improvements and evaluation that incorporates engagement in planning and decision making processes as an integrated cycle. We provide example methods for increasing participation, developing structures and processes to receive and incorporate feedback, and measuring outcomes. Equity outcomes are particularly difficult to measure due to the impact of other socioeconomic and historic conditions, as well as the qualitative nature of experiences of inequity. To identify a set of equity outcomes that can be impacted by increased participation, we examine the relationship between regulators, utilities, and the community, and propose that folding engagement and continuous feedback into the normal functions of these organizations can improve the outcomes for energy system users.