Sierra Club and NRDC scored a big win for the environment in Colorado this week when the Colorado Public Utilities Commission (PUC) ruled to increase the annual savings goals for Xcel Energy’s Energy Efficiency plan for 2019-2023. Energy efficiency measures are far and away the lowest cost investment a utility can make in its electric system. Colorado has been a success story on this front, with years of increasingly effective energy efficiency measures being offered to consumers. Those efforts don’t just benefit the recipients of the energy efficiency incentive - things like rebates for better performing appliances, home weatherization programs, and other cost saving measures - they benefit all customers by lowering overall costs. That’s why Sierra Club, along with NRDC, the Colorado Energy Office, and the Colorado Renewable Energy Society (CRES) advocated at hearings last month to increase the 5-year goals and incentive package for Xcel Energy in Colorado.
The PUC considered those issues this week in evaluating a settlement put forward by Xcel, Commission Staff, the Office of Consumer Counsel, and other parties. While the settlement put forward a reasonable framework for the PUC to consider, it set goals at lackluster levels that would have simply maintained the status quo, and to some degree would have allowed some backsliding by Xcel without any penalty. Sierra Club and our allies argued that the plan’s ambitions fell short of what is possible. Instead, we argued for a structure that would set ambitious goals for Xcel to ensure that the utility would strive to implement even more cost effective energy efficiency measures. In a 2-1 decision, PUC Chairman Ackerman and Commissioner Koncilja agreed with us. They found that setting higher goals and a matching incentive structure is in the public interest and will save all customers money. The PUC agreed to our proposed goal of 500 GWh/annually through 2020. This is truly a moment of progress that would not have occurred without the strong advocacy of the Sierra Club, NRDC, the Colorado Energy Office and CRES.