Co-Chair Ron Horstman Western Area Power Administration
Co-Chair Mike Beyer Yampa Valley Electric Association
1:00 - 1:30 pm | Xcel Energy's Battery Storage Demand Response Pilot This presentation will cover results from the first full year of Xcel Energy's Battery Connect Pilot, including battery usage baselines, dispatch performance, and customer satisfaction. This pilot expands on common residential DR practices. Unlike air conditioning-based control strategies, batteries can provide demand response year-round, and the regular use of a battery does not have the potential to affect the customer's comfort in any way. Xcel Energy and Resource Innovations will offer perspectives from both the utility and evaluation side. The pilot seeks to address three primary research areas: 1) Capabilities of the vendors' battery management software for demand response, data collection, and analysis; 2) The availability and performance of demand response of the battery systems; and 3) Customer preferences in allocating a portion of their battery to support the grid.
Carlos Hill Xcel Energy
George Jiang Resource Innovations
1:30 - 2:00 pm | Battery Storage and Demand Response Holy Cross Energy has three options for Demand Response that are enhanced by battery storage options and vary based on the member's desired level of control and participation, including aspects of equity, customer journey, and reshaping the load profile now.
Fueling the Future of Energy-Efficient Homes Babcock Ranch is an eco-centric town embedded in nature and powered by the sun. In partnership with Florida Power & Light Company, Babcock Ranch is home to 150 MW of utility-scale solar energy centers and a 40 MWh battery storage system. The town recently announced its Innovation Way model home park, which serves as a "living laboratory" where leading national homebuilders are testing new designs and deploying and refining smart technologies that will change the way we live. This presentation will highlight Savant's patented inCharge Power System, which was incorporated as part of the Innovation Way project to help homeowners monitor and manage power usage and back-up storage. In addition to creating a more economic and resilient home, the inCharge system monitors the overall health of a home's electricity system. Our unique technology helps the homeowner and utility manage the home's energy usage.
Mary Alice Jackson Florida Power & Light
Anna Demeo Savant
Grid-Interactive Efficient Buildings: Buildings as DERs Buildings have the potential to become a clean and flexible distributed energy resources by combining energy efficiency and demand flexibility with smart technologies and communications. Utilities and program administrators can benefit greatly from programs that accurately value the benefits of grid-interactive efficient buildings (GEBs). This rapid-fire presentation will highlight how utilities can leverage incentive mechanisms to drive GEB adoption in their territories.
Cedar Blazek US Department of Energy, Building Technologies Office
Beneficial Electrification through Performance Contracting: Lessons Learned and Success Stories The Colorado Energy Office will present on how political subdivisions in Colorado have successfully implemented beneficial electrification projects paired with battery storage through Energy Performance Contracting. Success stories and lessons learned will be highlighted, including how to combine energy efficiency, renewable energy, electrification, demand management and battery storage at government facilities to cost effectively decrease GHG emissions and provide resiliency to critical services. Funding opportunities such as grants, utility rates and programs can make the difference between beneficial electrification and battery storage projects being financially viable or not, and how to access these funding opportunities will be discussed.
Dylan Klomhaus Colorado Energy Office
Colorado's Evolving Building Decarbonization Policies In the past four years the Colorado legislature has passed an ambitious suite of policies aimed at reducing GHG emissions. This presentation will provide an update on implementation of these policies, with an emphasis on those that focus on beneficial electrification, energy efficiency, and building decarbonization. Including providing an overview of policy implementation this presentation will highlight opportunities for collaboration between natural gas and electric utilities to support GHG emissions reduction at the local and state level.
Justin Brant Southwest Energy Efficiency Project
2:30 - 3:00 pm | Refreshment Break
Workshop 2: Electric Vehicle Drivers
Co-Chair Alantha Garrison Gunnison Electric Cooperative
Co-Chair Tony Francone Poudre Valley Rural Electric Cooperative
3:00 - 3:30 pm | The Road to 940,000 EVs by 2030 The electric vehicle market is at an inflection point with new models and robust resources for charging infrastructure becoming available to aid in achieving the state’s goal of 940,000 light-duty EVs by 2030. Dramatic increases in state, federal and other funding sources allow the Colorado Energy Office (CEO) to evolve programs to meet changing market conditions and community needs. In order to ensure the benefits of transportation electrification are available to all, CEO is developing new approaches for low and moderate income residents and those living in disproportionately impacted communities. At the same time, there is a need to increase awareness of EVs among Colorado consumers to capitalize on this considerable momentum. A new, statewide education and awareness campaign will increase consumer EV knowledge, purchasing motivations, visits to EV websites and dealerships, and grow Colorado's EV market. To be successful, significant collaboration with key partners including utilities, municipalities, community organizations, private industry, and many others to achieve the State’s EV goals.
Matt Mines Colorado Energy Office
Carrie Atiyeh Colorado Energy Office
3:30 - 4:00 pm | DERs Beyond Efficiency: Electric Vehicle Education at Platte River Power Authority As Platte River transitions to a noncarbon energy future, Distributed Energy Resources (DERs) will comprise a key component of developing a more flexible electric load. Platte River has established efficiency programs under the Efficiency Works brand but, beyond efficiency, is only beginning to establish DER programs, taking its first steps through customer outreach and education programs. In 2022, Platte River will build a customized, centralized electric vehicle education microsite where customers will be able to research and compare different EV models, discover incentives and cost savings associated with transition to an electric vehicle, compare emissions and costs with gas and hybrid vehicles, and compare total cost of ownership. In addition to reaching customers in the earlier phases of electric vehicle research, the initiative exemplifies successful internal collaboration between programs and communications and marketing departments at a utility.
Kathleen West Platte River Power Authority
4:00 - 4:30 pm | CHARGE EV: A Collaborative Approach in Solving Range Anxiety In 2020, 31 cooperatives formed CHARGE EV with the goal of creating an upper Midwest EV charging network. The idea spread rapidly and quickly changed into creating a national EV Charging network that is powered by electric cooperatives. This session will focus on the challenges and opportunities of working together to create EV networks, lessons learned on public charging, and then discuss why partnerships help create a better EV ecosystem.
Nate Boettcher Pierce Pepin Cooperative Services
4:45 - 8:45 pm | Optional Evening Beaver Pond Tour and Dinner in Vail Have a fun evening in Vail and meet other conference attendees! Join Naturalists from Walking Mountains Science Center on an exclusive visit to a beaver pond to observe an active lodge and learn about one of nature's most industrious creatures. Then we’ll stroll into Vail Village where you will enjoy dinner at your own expense. We will provide 2-3 restaurant options for you to choose from in advance, and the dinner reservation will be made for you so larger groups can sit together and network. After dinner, the shuttle will take you back to the Westin in Avon. Families are welcome. We will depart the Westin at 4:55 p.m. and return to the Westin by 8:30 p.m.
7:30 – 9:00 am | Breakfast Buffet and First-Timers Orientation Buffet breakfast with opportunity to network
Utility and Government Roundtable
Co-Chair Ann Kirkpatrick Xcel Energy
Co-Chair Bryce Brady Platte River Power Authority
9:00 - 9:15 am | Welcoming Remarks
9:15 - 10:00 am | Roundtable Discussion Brief introduction by a designated representative from each utility on the one item that they would most like to learn or share during this event (such as new programs being considered or launched, etc.)
10:00 - 10:30 am | Refreshment Break — Hosted by Tri-State Generation & Transmission Association
10:30 am - 12:00 pm | Roundtable Discussion of Hot Topics
12:00 - 1:30 pm | Lunch Buffet — Hosted by AVEVA
Session 1: Beneficial Electrification Strategies
Co-Chair Alaina Hawley Platte River Power Authority
Co-Chair Mike Frailey Tri-State Generation & Transmission Association
1:30 - 2:00 pm | Is the Grid Ready for Beneficial Electrification? Xcel Energy will describe changes that will be required to meet the demands of full electrification of the grid. Power generation resources are changing, as will backup base load energy sources. We will forecast and manage power differently.
Mark Schoenheider Xcel Energy
2:00 - 2:30 pm | Strategizing for Beneficial Electrification Yampa Valley Electric Association (YVEA), a distribution cooperative in NW Colorado, recently completed a beneficial electrification feasibility study that included an analysis of market potential, barriers, and a strategic roadmap. The process helped YVEA prioritize and plan where and how to deploy its resources for beneficial electrification. The market analysis helped to create real-world expectations for technology performance and market adoption, while the barriers analysis identified external and internal challenges and opportunities for possible action. Road mapping considered stakeholder interviews and priorities to understand points of community interest and partnership opportunities. Utility-specific risk for extreme demand growth driven by visitor EVs was also explored. The presentation will describe the process and outcomes from YVEA's perspective and considerations for utilities faced with similar strategic challenges related to electrification.
Megan Moore-Kemp Yampa Valley Electric Association
Rich Hasselman GDS Associates
2:30 - 3:00 pm | Community-Specific Cost-Benefit Evaluation Framework for Beneficial Electrification The Colorado communities of Fort Collins and Longmont have aspirational carbon reduction goals and municipal utility programs are paving the way. Traditional cost effectiveness tests used for typical utility program design cannot adequately analyze measures or programs for some DERs and electrification because they don't fully capture community and utility costs and benefits. Therefore, a new jurisdiction-specific test was developed to answer the question: Will the total benefits to our community associated with deploying DERs that helps achieve policy goals exceed the total costs of these DERs to our community (including utility impacts)? Our analysis shows community carbon and non-energy benefits resulting from certain electrification incentives outweigh the increased utility system costs for increased energy needs in the short to mid-term. Come find out how these utilities went about this process to develop a roadmap for residential building electrification.
Co-Chair Chris Michalowski Mountain Parks Electric
3:30 - 4:00 pm | Symphony of DERs: A Practical Discussion of Distributed Resource Management With the rapid adoption of controllable DERs on the grid and an increasingly renewable power mix, effective DER control can provide significant member savings by shifting consumption to low-price hours and reducing peak demand. This session will outline what an Advanced Distribution Management Solution (ADMS) is and how they manage DERs as a valuable grid resource. The presenters will detail practical examples of real-world approaches to controlling DERs to benefit both DER owners and cooperative members as a whole. Case studies will discuss a school bus V2G project, interactive water heater control, behind-the-meter batteries dispatch, and utility-scale PV+storage control.
Dominic May La Plata Electric Cooperative
David Manning Holy Cross Energy
4:00 - 4:30 pm | Members as Partners: The Evolving Cooperative Business Model With the adoption of electric vehicles, rooftop solar systems, and smart appliances, the role of the co-op member is evolving. Now capable of providing services to support local grid operations, members are gradually emerging as important partners for their local distribution co-op. But with rates, programs, and member satisfaction teams all designed around providing service to members, how does the business model change when procuring services from members? And how can utilities ensure they have the data foundation to support such change? In this discussion, we explore the options available to co-ops who want to procure energy and ancillary services from their members' controllable devices. We ground our discussion with examples from Holy Cross Energy, a Colorado co-op seeking to procure ~20% of its power supply from local resources by 2030 and launching innovative programs and technology solutions to support the shift to a Distribution System Operator (DSO) business model.
Kimbrell Larouche Holy Cross Energy
Steven Brisley Camus Energy
Astrid Atkinson Camus Energy
4:30 - 5:00 pm | Sponsor Showcase Lightning Round Lightning-fast round of introductions to companies that offer leading-edge technology and service innovations. Listen closely to capture the secret word from each Showcase presenter to enter to win a valuable prize.
Presenters:
AVEVA
Camus Energy
CLP Engineering
EFI
Landis+Gyr
Savant
Sentient Energy
Trynzic
5:00 – 6:00 pm | Networking Reception — Hosted by Trynzic A key value to Exchange events is the opportunity to network with conference participants. Join us for a cocktails and appetizers. Come and share what you learned and get additional details about your topics of interest. You will also enjoy an opportunity to visit with naturalists and learn about local animals and habitat at the Walking Mountains Science Center display with family-friendly and hands-on nature activities and natural specimens. www.walkingmountains.org
Beneficial Electrification Learning and Aligning Emerging Trends for Success: A cold climate heat pump study with NREL, changing codes and standards, Colorado market research results, contractor engagement are all underway; and now how do we get the customers to buy into beneficial electrification?
Josh Martin Xcel Energy
Mike Papula Xcel Energy
Warming Contractors Up to Cold Climate Heat Pumps Even though heat pump technology has come a long way, many contractors remember heat pumps' poor past performance. Drawing on interviews with more than 50 HVAC contractors, this session will review the value propositions that motivate contractors to be an agent for beneficial electrification. First, they have to be convinced heat pumps are reliable and produce heat in cold climates. Second, when they understand the versatility of applications for ductless heat pumps, they provide customers solutions ideal for their situation. Third, when contractors understand time-of-use rates and grid-enabled connectivity, they offer customers an opportunity to save. Altogether, promoting heat pumps allows contractors to differentiate themselves in the marketplace, retain satisfied customers, stay competitive, and grow their business.
Jen Loomis Opinion Dynamics
9:00 - 10:00 am | Heat Pump Manufacturers Tell It Like It Is 1.0 BPI CEUs Four heat pump manufacturers will participate in a traditional panel, moderated by a utility member. Topics will include market trends, perceived challenges of heat pumps and best practices, the forecasted rates of heat pump adoption, and how utilities can help trade allies and customers willingly shift from the AC-and-furnace model to modern heat pumps.
Moderator Ann Kirkpatrick Xcel Energy
Jack Bott Bosch
Jason Thomas Carrier
Matthew Baker Daikin
Sam Beeson Mitsubishi
10:00 - 10:30 am | Refreshment Break — Hosted by Eaton
Session 4: Residential Customer Engagement
Co-Chair Brian Tholl Fort Collins Utilities
Co-Chair Cesar KoKoletzi United Power
10:30 - 11:00 am | Proven Solutions for Engaging Landlords in Your Efficiency Program 0.5 BPI CEUs Successfully engaging landlords to pursue efficiency projects brings a new, and generally underserved, segment that can benefit from your program. While rental properties pose some unique challenges, the rewards are worth the effort. Join Fort Collins Utilities in this session where we'll share what we've tried, what failed, what worked and what we learned. We'll share how we learned from landlords what their priorities are for their rentals, how we tailored our marketing, how certain types of financing can be a major incentive and how we've evolved our program to meet landlords and tenants where they are in our Epic Homes for Rentals program.
Glenn Pease Fort Collins Utilities
11:00 - 11:30 am | Fullstream: A Systems-based Design Approach to a Changing Market Rocky Mountain Power and Resource Innovations are implementing a new programmatic structure for energy efficiency programs, called Fullstream. Fullstream breaks down the barriers of a siloed program approach by combining the strengths of three "traditional" program designs (upstream, midstream, and downstream). Fullstream is a systems-based design framework that addresses multiple market barriers by providing incentives and participation avenues at more than one point in the supply chain. It brings together data management and analysis, participation management best practices, and measure design to optimize claimed savings, improve participant experience, and increase attribution and influence across the supply chain. Perhaps most importantly, it provides the data and structure needs to rapidly adapt and naturally incorporate additional utility initiatives (increased savings, hard to reach markets/customers, new key performance indicators, etc.). We will share the Fullstream structure and results of our first year of implementing a Fullstream approach in Idaho and Wyoming.
Jake DeMann Resource Innovations
11:30 am - 12:00 pm | One Nifty Device Helps Customers Manage their Peak Energy Use — Automagically 0.5 BPI CEUs Time Of Use rates + smart meters + demand response/summertime peak = the need for automatic HVAC temperature adjustments. Learn how some smart thermostats automatically optimize usage by pre-cooling homes outside of peak usage times, ease the demand load, and how this message is being developed to educate customers.
Co-Chair Peter Rusin Tri-State Generation & Transmission Association
1:30 - 2:00 pm | Implementing Income-Qualified Beneficial Electrification through the Weatherization Assistance Program 0.5 BPI CEUs
Income-Qualified BE for Mobile Home Parks Beneficial Electrification for Eagle County Housing has focused on a mobile home park in rural Eagle County that has high propane costs and a very poor housing stock. These mobile homes have been weatherized and retrofitted with heat pumps, heat pump water heaters and induction cooktops to make these home healthier, cleaner, and in our pilot, more economic.
John Gitchell Eagle County
Lisa Reed Holy Cross Energy
Nate Speerstra Northwest Colorado Council of Governments
Beneficial Electrification in Colorado's Weatherization Assistance Program Colorado's Weatherization Assistance Program (WAP) has been installing air source heat pumps (ASHPs) — and other BE technologies like ASHP water heater and induction ranges — since 2019 in an effort to improve the lives of low-income Coloradans through beneficial electrification (BE). This presentation will tell the origin story about WAP's decision to include BE along with lessons learned so far. Finally, the presentation will consider the impacts of WAP BE on electric utilities as well as pathways for partnerships between utilities and Colorado WAP.
Stephanie Insinna-Sahondo Colorado Energy Office
2:00 - 2:30 pm | Finding Value in Beneficial Electrification for Income-Qualified Customers 0.5 BPI CEUs Beneficial electrification has become an equity priority. Our Income-Qualified Beneficial Electrification pilot aims to define a value proposition through reducing cost barriers, studying bill impacts, and adding additional benefits to these electrification opportunities.
Kristin May Xcel Energy
Andy Caler Energy Outreach Colorado
2:30 - 3:00 pm | Weaving Energy Equity into Customer Programs 0.5 BPI CEUs Utilities can apply an equity lens to their customer programs and engagement, enabling them to address energy-related challenges faced by historically underserved communities. Utilities recognize this win-win opportunity to better serve customers and meet increasing energy savings and decarbonization goals, as well as growing regulatory mandates to address equity. But based on our research, many don't know where to start. To help, we'll lead a workshop on planning and administering comprehensive equity programs based on E Source's energy equity framework and applied best practices integrating equity, community partnership, and climate action at the City of Longmont. We'll explore how utilities and communities can: 1) define equity in their jurisdictions; 2) engage stakeholders to; 3) design and implement their equity-focused initiatives; and 4) evaluate and iterate on them for success.
Co-Chair Susan Bartlett Longmont Power and Communications
Co-Chair Adam Perry Resource Innovations
3:30 - 4:00 pm | Launching a Shared Solar Offering for Multi-Family Housing: Challenges and Solutions 0.5 BPI CEUs Residential solar installation incentive programs have typically served customers with single-family detached homes because of a combination of technical, legal, policy and business challenges. Renters and condominium owners with individually metered units haven't been able to access rooftop solar generation even if the desire, permission, and funding solutions were aligned for an installation. Fort Collins Utilities set out to create a virtual net-metered solar offering for the multi-family housing market: a solution to simplify the energy generation and connection hardware requirements while delivering the monthly generation credits to residents on their utility bills. The virtual net metering solution leverages billing system capabilities to allocate the appropriate share of credit to separate residential accounts for each of the shared energy system participants. This presentation describes strategic and policy solutions to crafting this new program offering that will expand equity and enable pathways for achieving net-zero energy for multi-family buildings.
Leland Keller Fort Collins Utilities
4:00 - 4:30 pm | Heat Pumps are a Safe Bet. Heat Pumps are New and Tricky 0.5 BPI CEUs This 53,000 sq ft employee housing building was intended to have a natural gas space/water heating plant, and it nearly did. The design team pulled off a switch to an all-electric plus solar design, thanks to collaboration, energy modeling, incentives, and innovation. The space heat pumps were not innovative, but are efficient and have worked great. The domestic hot water heat pumps were innovative and are requiring substantial troubleshooting, but for unexpected reasons that serve as a lesson in the beneficial electrification movement. It is not the heat pump technology that has been the challenge, but the industry experience with it (engineers, HVAC trades, sales). View case study here.
Mary Wiener Holy Cross Energy
Ryland French Aspen Skiing Company
4:30 - 5:00 pm | Deploy Your Allies for retro-coMISSION IMPOSSIBLE Sometimes it may feel like a mission impossible finding true allies to improve the efficiencies of commercial properties. By consolidating rebate paths, increasing transparency, and providing trade ally scorecards measuring performance against their peers, Efficiency Works has made trade allies the primary drivers for bringing efficiency program awareness to the community and completing energy saving retrofits. In 2021, Efficiency Works relaunched its Building Tune-up program to provide services from simple HVAC systems to complex building automation systems. This relaunch includes an enhanced RTU maintenance pathway at no cost to a customer and a reimagined process flow for traditional retrocommissioning studies to increase participation rates among retrocommissioning agents. Over the same time, Efficiency Works transitioned into online rebate processes through an easy to navigate portal to provide a one-stop-shop for trade allies, energy advisors, and large customers to make for a more productive rebate journey. Learn how all these changes have made the MISSION IMPOSSIBLE possible, and make it your mission, should you choose to accept it.
Bryce Brady Platte River Power Authority
Kali Osborn Platte River Power Authority
Jacob Scott Franklin Energy
5:00 – 6:00 pm | Networking Meetup — Hosted by Michaels Energy Join your fellow Exchange members for great networking with a view, refreshing drinks, and wildlife. Open to all attendees at no additional fee, compliments of the Exchange, HawkQuest will present a Birds of Prey program which includes a bald or golden eagle, an owl, a falcon, and features a free-flying hawk. Learn about the importance of different raptor species, their adaptations, and their role in our ecosystems. HawkQuest is a nonprofit committed to environmental awareness through participatory, classroom-in-the-wild programs for all ages. www.hawkquest.org
Master Falconer Kin Quitugua of HawkQuest
7:30 - 9:00 am | Breakfast Buffet
Closing Session: Looking Back to the Future
Co-Chair Andy Rossello City of Aspen
Co-Chair Eileen Wysocki Holy Cross Energy
9:00 - 9:15 am | Farewell to Ed & Tiger Join us as we recognize Ed Thomas and Tiger Adolf for their efforts in creating and sustaining 16 annual Rocky Mt. Utility Exchanges as they make plans to retire from the energy utility industry.
9:15 - 10:30 am | "Sparking Collaboration" Audience Discussion The audience will explore ways to keep the collaboration going based on the networking and learning gained from this and past Exchanges. You will be asked to identify key takeaways from this year’s Exchange and share examples of how you’ve leveraged insights from past Exchanges within your organization and career.
Co-Chair Ron Horstman
Co-Chair Mike Beyer
Carlos Hill
George Jiang
Lisa Reed
Mary Alice Jackson
Anna Demeo
Cedar Blazek
Dylan Klomhaus
Justin Brant
Co-Chair Alantha Garrison
Co-Chair Tony Francone
Matt Mines
Carrie Atiyeh
Kathleen West
Nate Boettcher
Co-Chair Ann Kirkpatrick
Co-Chair Bryce Brady
Co-Chair Alaina Hawley
Co-Chair Mike Frailey
Mark Schoenheider
Megan Moore-Kemp
Rich Hasselman
Brian Tholl
Susan Bartlett
Justin Spencer
Co-Chair Alan Stoinski
Co-Chair Chris Michalowski
Dominic May
David Manning
Kimbrell Larouche
Steven Brisley
Astrid Atkinson
Co-Chair Michael Turner
Josh Martin
Mike Papula
Jen Loomis
Jack Bott
Jason Thomas
Matthew Baker
Sam Beeson
Co-Chair Cesar KoKoletzi
Glenn Pease
Jake DeMann
Michelle Beaudoin
Andy Ryan
Shawn Peterson
Co-Chair Brooke Pike
Co-Chair Peter Rusin
John Gitchell
Nate Speerstra
Stephanie Insinna-Sahondo
Kristin May
Andy Caler
Francie Jaffe
Ben Nathan
Co-Chair Adam Perry
Leland Keller
Mary Wiener
Ryland French
Kali Osborn
Jacob Scott
Master Falconer Kin Quitugua of HawkQuest
Co-Chair Andy Rossello
Co-Chair Eileen Wysocki
Co-Moderator Ed Thomas
Co-Moderator Tiger Adolf
