SEPA’s Layered Energy Equity Definition Tool

SEPA’s mapping tool offers a valuable resource for state energy offices and regional stakeholders to identify potential focus areas for clean energy projects, support grant applications, and evaluate the effectiveness of ongoing programs. It can help to ensure that both state and federal resources are targeted towards the highest needs communities, thereby improving energy equity and environmental justice outcomes.

Objectives:

• Identify equity-related characteristics of communities across the state and compare their need for various types of support.
• Justify project sites for application and funding by identifying quantitative and qualitative benefits to disadvantaged communities.
• Select and implement sites within disadvantaged communities.
• Use the tool as a baseline to identify how well state programs are serving targeted communities.

SEPA’s Layered Energy Equity Definition Tool is designed to be a one-stop shop for government agencies and stakeholders to locate energy equity and disadvantaged community attributes of specific locations, block groups, and census tracts. The mapping tool enables users to determine the alignment between state and federal definitions of disadvantaged communities to support funding opportunities and program implementation. The tool was developed through support from the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality’s (NCDEQ) State Energy Office.

Mapping Tool for Identifying Disadvantaged Communities in North Carolina: Ensuring Equitable Benefits from State and Federal Clean Energy Investments is a case study that explores how the North Carolina State Energy Office partnered with SEPA to help their internal staff and external stakeholders better understand the underserved populations and disadvantaged communities (DACs) which they serve by developing an interactive multi-functional mapping tool. Learn more about how the mapping tool was developed and how you can replicate this with SEPA in this case study.

Authors:

Smart Electric Power Alliance

Contact and Author of the Case Study – Jared Leader, Senior Director, Resilience

Contact and Developer of the Mapping Tool  – Carolyn Dougherty, Senior Analyst, Research and Industry Strategy

Partners:

North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality (NCDEQ) State Energy Office

The North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality (NCDEQ) State Energy Office is dedicated to ensuring a sustainable energy future for the citizens of North Carolina. The Office provides services and technical expertise focused on energy efficiency in the public sector, encouraging the growth and development of the state’s energy economy with the goal of making North Carolina a leader in the creation of energy jobs. The Office also works to increase the use of renewable energy and alternative fuels and improve energy efficiency throughout the state, serving as the principal source of information for these energy areas. In addition, the group provides staffing for the state Energy Policy Council.