Toward resilient and inclusive energy communities: exploring Canadian low-emission case studies in different contexts

This paper explores the role of energy communities in advancing decentralized, resilient, and low-carbon energy systems in the Canadian context, introducing three case studies—a First Nation-led microgrid in Gull Bay, a district energy redevelopment in Montreal’s Lachine-East, and a net-zero neighborhood in London’s West5. The study investigates how different market compensation mechanisms can improve the energy and economic performance of such communities, an issue that has received little attention in the Canadian context. The novelty of this work lies in linking lessons from diverse community experiences, focusing on a detailed techno-economic assessment of West5. The first two cases are quickly framed to illustrate the operational and governance challenges of community-led transitions in remote and redevelopment contexts, while West5 is analyzed in depth using TOOLS4Cities platform to evaluate the impact of three market compensation mechanisms: Feed-in Tariffs (FiT), Virtual Energy Sharing (VES), and Community Net Metering (CNM). West5 neighborhood is a grid-connected solar community in Ontario, Canada, and it was selected as a newly built net-zero urban testbed. Modeling results show that FiT yields the highest revenues at the individual-building level, whereas CNM offers the greatest cost savings due to flexible crediting logics. VES, inspired by the Italian policy model, supports collective self-consumption but it is limited by the need for hourly coordination. Findings underline the importance of regulatory strategies, the energy and economic benefits of community-level mechanisms, and the need for performance monitoring for implementing community-level renewable projects. By combining contextual insights from multiple Canadian cases with detailed modeling of West5, the paper offers insights for designing adaptive, inclusive, and scalable energy community models suited to Canada’s evolving energy landscape.