The $150 million push to electrify Colorado’s mountain towns 

In partnership with the nonprofit Mountain Community Coalition, utility Xcel Energy’s $150 million Mountain Energy Project is a large, “non-pipeline alternative” experiment in Colorado designed to avert winter gas shortages without building new pipelines, which was initially estimated at $300 million. 

The big picture: Xcel is paying customers and contractors to voluntarily slash natural gas demand by transitioning homes to electric alternatives.

• The program funnels rebates — up to $30,000 for homeowners — into four counties in the heart of ski country to fast-track the adoption of cold-climate heat pumps, insulation, and electric water heaters.
• The funding is broken into three categories, including $49 million for electrification through rebate programs and $26 to $28 million for electric infrastructure upgrades. 

What’s happening: Homepros spoke with Jessica Burley, sustainability manager for the town of Breckenridge, who worked with the Mountain Community Coalition on the project.

How would you describe the area’s residential contractor workforce?

“I think it’s really easy when you’re under-resourced, or you’re a mom-and-pop shop or single contractor doing this work, that you stick with the bread and butter of what you know because you’re so busy, and those are the projects that you can do really effectively.

The position we’ve taken in Breckenridge is really to try to be partners with the workforce. We know how important they are to this [electric] transition, and we also know, from the rural and remote nature of our community, that the workforce is hard to come by. So, we feel like investing in that group has yielded dividends in our community.”

How does Breckenridge support contractor education on these efforts?

“We had received a grant of… about $80,000 to put directly back into the workforce through trainings, continuing education, and equipment purchases, which turned out to be really, really effective. So those folks were included as stakeholders as we updated the building code.

We’re really trying to frame it around the fact that, ‘We have an infrastructure problem here, and we need your help to fix it. And, by the way, if you don’t know how to do that now, here are some resources toward training and equipment that hopefully can get you to at least acknowledge and learn a little bit about heat pump heating systems, heat pump water heaters,’ and it really took off. That bucket of money was provided by the town of Breckenridge through the state of Colorado.”

Have there been other projects like this?

“We have been told — and our research bears out — that this is the largest non-pipeline alternative under the gas planning clean heat framework that’s ever been done in the country… There are NPAs [non-pipeline alternatives] coming out of the New England area, but in terms of the Rocky Mountain West, this is the one.”

Go deeper