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Energy Efficiency and Small Utilities
Our Position: support
Bill Number: HB1107
Sponsor: Representative Claire Levy
Legislative Session: 2008
This bill would have required electric associations and municipal utilities with 5,000 or more customers to engage in conservation and energy efficiency programs to help customers to reduce utility bills, pollutant emissions, and the use of finite fossil fuels.
Status
02/05/08 passed House Transportation and Energy Committee.02/22/08 Passed Appropriations Committee. 02/26/08 Passed House Second Reading. 02/27/08 Passed House Third Reading. 03/04/08 Introduced in the Senate - Assigned to the Senate State, Veterans, and Military Committee. 03/26/08 Bill was laid over with amendments by the Senate Committee. 04/07/08 Bill Postponed Indefinitely
Action Needed
More information
• HB 1107, sponsored by Rep. Claire Levy, would have expand energy efficiency programs implemented by municipal utilities and rural electric cooperatives in Colorado. It complements HB 07-1037 which applied to investor-owned utilities and was passed by the legislature. • HB 1107 directs covered utilities to spend at least 2% of their sales revenues on cost-effective energy efficiency programs for their customers starting in 2010, programs such as low-cost energy audits, rebates on high efficiency appliances, and cost reductions for CFLs. • The bill applies to 30 electric utilities in the state serving over 900,000 customers. Small utilities with under 5,000 customers are exempted. • HB 1107 will lead covered utilities to spend at least $32 million per year on energy efficiency programs. Each utility decide which energy efficiency programs to offer. • The bill does NOT extend PUC regulation to municipal utilities or rural electric cooperatives. • Estimated electricity savings: 420 MW of peak electric power demand and 1.5 billion kWh per year by 2020. The latter value is equivalent to the electricity use of over 170,000 typical households in Colorado. • The Fort Collins municipal utility is implementing energy efficiency programs that save energy at an average cost of 1.5 cents per kWh, one quarter the cost of electricity supply. But most municipal utilities and rural coops in the state are not doing this. • If this bill is adopted, consumers and businesses will realize $600 million in net economic benefits as a result of efficiency measures installed during 2008-2020 according to SWEEP. • Estimated reduction in carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by power plants: 1.4 million metric tons of CO2 per year by 2020. The bill will help to achieve Gov. Ritter’s climate action goals. HB 1107 WILL SAVE CONSUMERS AND BUSINESSES MONEY, REDUCE THE NEED FOR COSTLY NEW POWER PLANTS, AND LOWER AIR POLLUTION!
Contact
Contact: Susan LeFever, Director Sierra Club Rocky Mountain Chapter Office Phone: (303) 861-8819
Background
Colorado law currently requires utilities with 10,000 customers or more (like Xcel) to offer energy efficiency programs like appliance rebates or discounts on compact fluorescent light bulbs. But if you live in a rural area, or a small community with a municipal utility you may be left out! This bill would require cooperative electric associations and municipal utilities with 5,000 or more customers to implement programs to help their customers increase energy efficiency and conserve energy. The effects of such programs include reducing utility bills, pollutant emissions caused by the use of electricity, and the use of finite fossil fuels. In the first year of implementation, 1% of sales revenue would go to such programs and in subsequent years 2% of sales revenue. The bill would also exempt a utility from contributing funding if its' sales fall at least 3% below the sales of the proceeding year.
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