Xcel Energy has introduced a series of initiatives that will create a more modern and efficient-energy grid, nurture new technologies and give customers more choices for their energy use.
The plans, collectively called “Our Energy Future,” will position Colorado as a center of innovation in energy policy and practice, says Alice Jackson, Xcel Energy’s regional vice president for rates and regulatory affairs. It grew out of discussions with businesses, developers and communities across Colorado, she said. “This really is a future that is driven by our customers.”
Xcel Energy’s vision for Our Energy Future includes three key objectives:
Powering Technology—Making the power grid more efficient and reliable by piloting innovative systems to generate and manage energy. These investments will allow Xcel Energy to modernize while keeping prices competitive.
Under Xcel Energy’s Innovative Clean Technology program, two solar-to-battery demonstration projects were submitted to the Colorado PUC in late 2015. The Stapleton Battery Project will add storage to homes, businesses and feeder lines in a Denver neighborhood with many rooftop solar arrays.
“With tech advancements, everything from electric vehicles to batteries to rooftop solar to community solar, we’re now seeing customers not only receiving power but delivering power,” Jackson says.
The Panasonic Microgrid Project would add a solar array and battery storage at Peña Station near DIA, where Panasonic Enterprise Solutions Co., a maker of solar power systems, is building its U.S. headquarters. The microgrid would serve not just Panasonic but other customers at L.C. Fulenwider’s 400-acre transit-oriented development site, near RTD’s new light rail line. In the future, these new battery technologies will allow customers to store energy for when they need it the most.
Powering the Economy—Delivering the renewable solutions that businesses, communities and residential customers are looking for. This embrace of cutting-edge technology will boost efforts to bring innovative new businesses and jobs to Colorado.
The new Solar*Connect program allows customers without rooftop solar to sign up for 100-percent solar power. Envisioning continued growth in rooftop and community solar programs—almost 30,000 customers participate in the current Solar*Rewards program—Xcel Energy will explore augmenting community-scale solar programs, as well as adding as much as a gigawatt of solar and wind generation to its existing portfolio.
Empowering Customer Choice—Providing new renewable energy options under an equitable rate system that takes into account the growth of rooftop solar and other innovations.
Xcel Energy has filed a Phase II Electric Rate Case for a comprehensive update of the way electric pricing plans are designed, and how cost and usage data is made available to customers.
“That’s why the grid intelligence is so important,” Jackson says. “We have to be able to measure how our customers are using their energy, to make sure that we’re appropriately and equitably assessing them the cost that it takes for us to provide those services.”
The collection of filings that make up Our Energy Future will take about a year to make their way through the regulatory process, Jackson says. “Our communities want to adopt these technologies, embrace them and move them forward.”
