Members of our Community Editorial Board, a group of community residents who are engaged with and passionate about local issues, respond to the following question: Under leadership of a new Boulder area manager, Xcel is reaching out to Boulder residents to create a community advisory board. Your take?
Our city has an embarrassment of riches when it comes to talented people working on energy issues. We are host to some of the world’s leading energy and environmental think tanks and advocacy groups. We have startups creating innovative solutions to improve energy efficiency and integrate more renewables into the grid.
I work for a consulting group focused on clean energy, and nearly all of our competitors also have offices in Boulder. The city itself employs many capable energy experts, and over the last few years nearly all of this expertise was focused on the municipalization project in one way or another.
Beyond the professionals, we have a community full of passionate, educated residents who are alarmed about climate change and who want our government and our utility to match our level of concern and to support us in reducing our own carbon footprints.
Though it may seem counterintuitive, this community passion was the reason I opposed municipalization. The City of Boulder has historically pushed Xcel Energy to go further with renewable energy and energy efficiency, both informally and as intervenors in Xcel’s rate cases. I was concerned that without Boulder’s efforts, Xcel might slow its progress toward decarbonization. I’m so pleased that Boulder remains committed to pushing Xcel to do more, which will benefit all of Xcel’s 1.4 million customers and not just our small city.
Utilities are typically risk-averse entities, often anxiously watching what their peer utilities are doing before attempting anything new themselves. However, we know that we’re not making fast enough progress toward decarbonization using the old approaches. We need to focus more on energy efficiency, switching from natural gas to electricity when possible, and ensuring equitable access to energy program opportunities for lower-income customers.
My hope is that this community advisory board can find creative ways to establish Boulder as the test bed for innovation as Xcel pilots new approaches before rolling them out to their entire customer base. I can think of no community better suited to play that role.
Jane Hummer, janehummer@gmail.com
While I didn’t fully support the municipalization effort in Boulder, I do think the effort played a positive role in pushing Xcel and other power generators out of dirty energy production.
Boulder’s new franchise agreement requires Xcel, by March 31, to file with the Public Utility Commission and diligently seek a clean energy plan to reduce carbon emissions to 80% of 2005 levels. With renewable energy now being more cost-effective (in most instances) than fossil fuels, I would expect that the city and Xcel could far exceed those goals.
Another positive aspect of the settlement agreement is that Boulder’s franchise agreement will likely put Boulder in a prime position to drive energy policy not only for Boulder County and the surrounding area, but likely for the entire state of Colorado (at least those parts served by Xcel). Primarily, this will be because no other city in Colorado is taking as much interest in driving to 100% renewable energy use. So, every renewable energy gain by the city will likely propagate across the state.
To oversee the administration of the franchise agreement, Boulder has three levels of oversight: a Partnership Agreement Oversight team led by the city manager and her staff that oversees the contractual requirements, a Project Oversight Team that oversees specific projects in the city (such as undergrounding), and finally, a Community Advisory Panel that consists of 6 to 15 members of the community and will discuss initiatives that spring from the plan and their impact on Boulder residents. Xcel has also hired Iffie Jennings as Boulder Area Manager to help facilitate success of the agreement for Xcel.
These teams have a lot to do in 2021; especially in the next three months. I will be cautiously watching to see how it goes. If we don’t play well together in 2021, it will likely mean the relationship is doomed to fail. If they do, we could actually see a renewable future for Boulder.
Doug Hamilton, hamilton1801@aim.com
I remember during election season I witnessed a lone figure on the corner of Canyon Boulevard and Broadway holding a sign with the word “Xcel” crossed out. On the other side of the sign, the words “Say no to monopoly” were written.
It’s always striking to see a protest of one — it means that this person believes so strongly in their convictions they are willing to stand out. By the honks of passing cars, it was evident that this isn’t a singularly held view.
It’s clear that within our community, there are strong feelings about Xcel’s presence. Boulder’s push for municipalization faltered this time, and now Xcel is in a position to forge stronger community partnerships with new leadership from Iffie Jennings.
Boulder should prioritize renewable and affordable energy as well as payment forgiveness for customers who were unable to pay due to financial hardship caused by the pandemic.
I’m curious about the process of assembling the community advisory board. Will these board members be compensated in any way? I think something important about forming a community board should be ensuring a balance of property owners and renters.
A priority for the board and Jennings should be to ensure that there is equitable community representation on the board. And, a best practice would be compensating these board members for their contributions — or, at least, giving them a better deal on their electric bill!
Emily Duffy, duffylala@gmail.com
Iffie Johnson, despite coming from the health care industry, seems equipped with the skills necessary to interact successfully with the yet-to-be-formed community advisory board.
While the board will surely be hot to reduce carbon generation, the obvious first task is to decide which power lines to bury first. Xcel has committed $33 million dollars to “catch up” on the undergrounding that didn’t take place during the city’s efforts to municipalize. The city has called out Chautauqua specifically as an area of concern here. The fire risk due to overhead power lines is real there.
Xcel’s plan is to get to 80% carbon-free electrical generation by 2030. Boulder’s plan is 100%. Boulder will still be getting the vast majority of its power from Xcel, so I’m curious how it will clean up that remaining 20%. It could be by installing lots of local solar power and pumping the excess back into the grid as a credit. That’s a tall order and unlikely. Lifting the restriction on 120% solar generation will help, though.
Currently, there is a state law that limits local renewable energy generation to 120% of the average energy usage of the customer. For a number of reasons this isn’t a reasonable limitation going forward. The power produced by a solar power installation is rarely the rated value, due to clouds, tilt angle, snow, etc. Hence, a 120% installation is likely not even enough to power the house it’s installed on, let alone act as a community power source.
The community advisory board is mostly to placate Boulder citizens. People want to be heard. Johnson sounds like the right person to listen. I’m especially encouraged by her side gig: The Kindness Network. If anyone can succeed in this difficult job, it is her.
Bill Wright, billwright510@gmail.com
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January 02, 2021 at 06:02AM
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From the Community Editorial Board: Xcel advisory board - Boulder Daily Camera
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