Energy

Environmental Indicators

Electricity and natural gas are forms of energy that heat and power our buildings, homes, and offices. For dashboard purposes, both are combined into one target area. Energy emissions make up about 65% of Fort Collins’ greenhouse gas emissions. Electrification of appliances, vehicles, and heating systems is an emerging trend that will support Fort Collins’ Our Climate Future goals as electricity sources become more renewable. While electricity is becoming more renewable and more parts of our daily needs are electrified, Fort Collins may see a brief increase in electricity emissions and decreases in natural gas and vehicle fuel emissions.

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Energy Emissions

Energy Measures

The following measures are categorized as direct or indirect. Direct measures track data used to calculate carbon emissions. Indirect measures show community trends that may impact carbon emissions but are not directly tied to carbon calculations. Some measures are not evaluated against a target and are simply informational. This is indicated when the status bar is gray instead of green, yellow, or red.

Measures

Actual

Target

Results

Direct Measures

Community Electricity Use by Resource (kWh/year)

Community electricity use by resource type indicates the amount of electricity used by the community and how it was generated. Fort Collins electricity comes from renewables (hydropower, solar and wind), purchases from other generators, and fossil sources (coal and natural gas). Data is provided by Fort Collins Utilities and the Platte River Power Authority.


1,495,344	N/A	2021

Indirect Measures

Percent Renewable Electricity Generation

This metric indicates the amount of electricity generated from renewable electricity resources (wind, solar, and hydropower). The values shown here represent the percentage of renewable generation each year since 2005. The City’s Energy Policy has a goal of 100% renewable electricity by 2030. For this metric, good performance is indicated by an increasing amount of renewable electricity generation. Data is provided by Fort Collins Utilities and the Platte River Power Authority.


51.50%	40.00%	2021

Percent Fossil Electricity Generation

This metric indicates the amount of electricity generated from fossil electricity resources (coal, natural gas, and grid-purchases). The values shown here represent the percentage of fossil generation each year since 2005. City Energy Policy seeks to reduce the percentage of coal-derived electricity to less than 60% by 2020. For this metric, good performance is indicated by a decreasing amount of fossil electricity generation. Data is provided by Fort Collins Utilities and the Platte River Power Authority.


49.50%	60.00%	2021

Community Natural Gas Use per Capita (decatherms/year)

This metric tracks natural gas use per capita. This metric is evaluated annually and is calculated by dividing the yearly community natural gas use by that year’s population. By tracking natural gas at a per capita level, changes in behavior, efficiency, and other influencing factors are more visible than at the community level where population can mask these trends. Performance improves as natural gas use per capita declines. Data is provided by Fort Collins Utilities.


48	50	2021

Community Electricity Use Per Capita (kWh/quarter)

This metric tracks electricity use (kWh) per capita. It is calculated by dividing the yearly community electricity use by that year’s population. By tracking electricity use at a per capita level, changes in behavior, efficiency, and other influencing factors are more visible than at the community level where population can mask these trends. Performance improves as electricity use per capita declines. Data is provided by Fort Collins Utilities.


2,024	2,283	Q4 2021

Energy Performance of Municipal Buildings (KBTU/square foot)

Energy Performance of Municipal Buildings measures the energy (natural gas and electricity, converted to a common unit) use of municipal buildings per square foot. This metric is calculated by dividing the municipality’s annual energy use by the total building square footage of its building stock. The lower the number, the better the energy performance of our municipal buildings. The advantage of tracking building energy use per square foot is that it shows changes in efficiency, behavior change of building occupants, and other influencing factors. The data for this metric comes from the City’s Operations Services Department.


109.90	130.58	2021

Energy Performance of Community Buildings (KBTU/square foot)

Energy Performance of Community Buildings measures the energy (natural gas and electricity, converted to a common unit) use of community buildings per square foot. This metric is calculated by dividing the community’s annual energy use by the total building square footage. The lower the number, the better the energy performance of buildings. The advantage of tracking building energy use per square foot is that it shows changes in efficiency, behavior change of building occupants, and other influencing factors. The data for this metric comes from Fort Collins Utilities.


66	N/A	2021

Energy Initiatives

Initiatives are projects, programs, and positions that the Fort Collins City Council has funded through its budgeting process. Those shown here have a direct impact on energy emissions.

Dec-21

See less

Initiative

Status

Community Shared Solar

The Riverside Community Solar Project is one of two existing community solar projects. It is a 620 kilowatt solar generation facility located in Fort Collins on repurposed brownfield land on Riverside Drive, built and operated by Clean Energy Collective (CEC). Approximately two hundred residents own the solar shares in the Riverside Project, which began operation in 2015. Utilities also manages a 64 kilowatt solar project and directs the output to benefit low income customers as part of the Income Qualified Assistance Program.

Output from a planned 22 megawatt solar project to be built at the Rawhide Energy Station in 2020 will be incorporated into a revised green energy subscription program. The project is a collaborative effort with Platte River Power Authority and the other three member cities and will also include a 2 megawatt-hour battery pilot.

Last updated:

Description - July 2019
Status - July 2019

Dec-21

Business and Home Energy Efficiency

Business and home electric customers have access to wide range of efficiency programs from Fort Collins Utilities. Several of the programs are delivered collaboratively with Platte River Power Authority under the Efficiency Works brand. The purpose of the portfolio is to encourage adoption of energy efficient practices and behaviors in all building types to reduce electricity use, peak demand and to reduce customer’s bills. Programs evolve over time in response to changes in market conditions, technology changes and updates to a range of codes and standards. Utilities and Platte River have been implementing efficiency programs since 2002. Third party efficiency program evaluations were being completed in 2017 and 2018, demonstrating the effectiveness of the portfolio results. Cumulative savings from 2005 is over 200 gigawatt-hours of ongoing savings to the community; in absence of efficiency efforts, community electricity use would be 13% higher than it is today.

Last updated:

Description - July 2019
Status - July 2019

Dec-21

Solar Power Purchase Program

The Solar Power Purchase Program (SP3) uses a feed-in-tariff model with power purchase agreements to increase solar generation on the distribution grid. With two rounds of funding and project selection, SP3 has 14 active projects with over 3.7 megawatts of capacity. New project awards in 2018 will increase the capacity by another 1.1 megawatts before the end of 2019. No new solicitations for projects under this model are currently planned.

Last updated:

Description - July 2019
Status - July 2019

Dec-21

Solar Rebate Program (Utilities Net Metered Solar Incentives)

The Solar Rebate Program provides incentives for net metered solar photovoltaic systems for homes and businesses, with 2019 funding of $625,000. Rebate amounts may vary, but are now at $0.50 per watt, with limits of 3 kW for residential and 200 kW for commercial. Buildings and homes with solar are billed under their normal rate structure, with advanced meters registering net consumption or net production on a 15-minute basis. Solar energy will reduce the consumption and associated utility bills, and net production is provided a monthly credit based on the rate structure. The program also provides information to interested customers, manages a residential Participating Solar Contractor network, completes interconnection agreements, and coordinates permitting with the City Building Department. It is anticipated that approximately 350 new solar systems will be installed in 2019.

Last updated:

Description - July 2019
Status - July 2019

Dec-21

Energy Code Performance

This initiative focuses on the compliance with, and improvements over time to, the City’s Energy Code (including local amendments). The City adopts energy codes on a three-year cycle, with the most recent being the 2018 International Energy Conservation Code (IECC) which went into effect in January 2019. The City has also incorporated higher requirements for certain aspects of the residential and commercial energy codes via local amendments. Staring in 2016, a staff position was established to support improved compliance. Based on a code compliance evaluation project in 2018, efforts continue to improve the expected outcomes from code requirements over time as a result of enhanced plan and submittal review, field inspection, and testing and contractor/builder training.

Last updated:

Description - July 2019
Status - July 2019

Dec-21

Building Energy and Water Scoring

The Building Energy and Water Scoring program was formally established by City Council in 2018 (Ordinance 2018-144), and requires transparency of energy and water efficiency of commercial and multifamily buildings 5,000 square feet and above. The requirements will be phased in over a three-year period, with the first round of reporting in 2020 for commercial buildings larger than 20,000 square feet. Comparing the energy and water performance of one building against another in the same sector allows commercial real estate stakeholders such as building owners, operators, and tenants, to evaluate the highest-performing, lowest-operating cost option, and to monitor their performance in the marketplace.

Last updated:

Description - July 2019
Status - July 2019

Dec-21

Time of Day Electricity Pricing

Fort Collins Utilities transitioned to Time-of-Day (TOD) electric pricing for all residential customers in October 2018. TOD pricing is a rate structure change and not a rate increase. The intention of TOD pricing is to more equitably pass through the costs of electricity to customers.

TOD has two levels of pricing: off-peak and on-peak, and two seasons: non-summer and summer. Off-peak prices are approximately 70 percent less than on-peak prices. Save money by shifting your electric use to the lower-priced, off-peak hours or by reducing your use.

The impacts of TOD on electricity use and peak demands will be evaluated after the first year in late 2019.

Last updated:

Description - July 2019
Status - July 2019

Dec-21

Xcel Partners in Energy

Fort Collins works with Xcel Energy through their Partners in Energy program to provide coordinated programs, services, and communications to shared customers regarding energy efficiency. Examples of the coordination include joint delivery of multifamily efficiency, water savings products which also save natural gas, and aligned home energy assessments and rebates. The program period was initially two years (2017-2018), but was renewed for another two years in 2019 due to the success of the partnership.

Last updated:

Description - July 2019
Status - July 2019

Dec-21

City Energy Project

From 2017 to 2018, Fort Collins was a participant in the second round of cities in the City Energy Project (CEP), a national initiative run jointly by the Institute for Market Transformation (IMT) and Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC). CEP worked in collaboration with participating cities to develop innovative solutions to energy efficiency in existing buildings. This work was completed as of December 2018 and updates on the main policy focus, Building Energy and Water Scoring, can be found above.

Last updated:

Description - July 2019
Status - July 2019

Dec-21

Electric Distributed Battery Pilot Program

The purpose of the Electric Distributed Battery Pilot is to understand and demonstrate how utilities infrastructure can interact with battery technologies, including financial and economic benefits to the utility and to residential and commercial customers. Utilities expects battery storage to be an essential component of long-term solutions for our clean energy goals. This targeted pilot will demonstrate a variety of technologies and use cases with modest resources in advance of future potential commitments to more comprehensive solutions. Fort Collins Utilities contracted with Johnson Controls Inc. for the battery hardware and Spirae (a Fort Collins company) for demonstrating the Wave control platform to monitor and control the commercial-scale battery at 222 Laporte, as well as other distributed energy resources.

The commissioning is planned for Q3 2019, with a demonstration period of 18 months. The project is one year behind schedule.

Last updated:

Description - July 2019
Status - July 2019

Dec-21

Platte River Integrated Resources Plan

As part of this ongoing effort, Platte River Power Authority develops an Integrated Resource Plan (IRP) together with our owner communities. The IRP is a critical tool for establishing a near-term action plan and long-term trajectory that will ensure an adequate supply of reliable, financially sustainable and environmentally responsible electricity. The focus of Platte River’s 2020 IRP will be on: generation projects, non-carbon energy, energy storage, distributed resources and energy efficiency. The IRP is scheduled for completion in 2020, with recurring updates to the owner communities.

Last updated:

Description - July 2019
Status - July 2019

Dec-21

Platte River Renewable Energy Projects

In early 2019, Platte River signed a purchase power agreement for an additional 20 megawatts of solar generating capacity, along with battery storage capabilities. Platte River will also purchase all the energy from a proposed 165 megawatt wind farm to be built in 2020. These two new renewable electricity projects will increase the non-carbon resource mix to over 50% by 2021.

Last updated:

Description - July 2019
Status - July 2019

Dec-21

Street Lighting Upgrades

An economic analysis of the costs of maintaining 150W HPS streetlights indicated that replacing them with LED streetlights at the existing failure rate would break even at the first normal maintenance cycle. Prices for longer lasting LED streetlights have now fallen to the point where the upfront investment to convert from traditional lights to LEDs can be recovered in about 8 years through energy savings and reduced maintenance costs. However, LEDs can have different color hues and coverage patterns than our current street lights. This project has helped Light and Power gather data and experience to better understand which kinds of LED lights will be the best fit for our community and existing infrastructure. So far in 2019, we have installed 345 LED streetlights (as of May 31^st).

Last updated:

Description - July 2019
Status - July 2019

Dec-21

Alternative Fuel Municipal Lawn and Garden Equipment

This initiative is aimed at transitioning municipally owned gasoline and diesel lawn and garden equipment to electric alternatives. Reduction of these emissions is important as they contribute to ozone pollution and greenhouse gas (GHG) concentrations. To date, approximately 40% of Parks' small gas engine powered equipment has been replaced with electric alternatives.

Last updated:

Description - July 2019
Status - July 2019

Dec-21

Municipal Energy Efficiency Fund

The Municipal Energy Efficiency Fund is responsible for a variety of energy efficiency upgrades, from lighting and HVAC retrofits to electrical systems upgrades. In 2018, lighting retrofits were completed and rebates received for Operation Services, the Downtown Park Shop, and Streets. In addition, the lighting retrofit for the City building at 215 N. Mason was completed, and the application for the rebate has been submitted. The EPIC admin area HVAC retrofit was also completed, as well as the UCS lake loop bypass.

This project was not funded in the 2019-2020 budget cycles, so no future initiatives are planned at this time. Options are being investigated to procure funding for other energy efficiency projects going forward.

Last updated:

Description - July 2019
Status - July 2019

Dec-21

Micro-Hydro Technology Upgrade at the Water Treatment Facility

The Fort Collins Water Treatment Facility recently completed a project to install a turbine to generate energy from water entering the treatment facility, replacing the previous system that slowed the flow of water, wasting the potential energy of the incoming stream. The new turbine has a capacity of 79 kW, and will produce approximately 550 Megawatt-hours of electricity per year. It covers between 20-25% of the facility’s electricity, reduces emissions, and reduces operating costs. The turbine came online in April 2019.

Last updated:

Status - July 2019
Description - July 2019

Dec-21

Energy Links

Click here to go to Fort Collins Utilities residential page.

Click here for the Fort Collins Utilities business page.