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The City of Longmont Staff brought a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) before Longmont City Council on Tuesday, October 15, 2019.
The MOU is non-binding and is for the purpose of exploring Longmont's participation in the Xcel Energy Partners in Energy program.
According to council communication, " the overall Partners in Energy program is a free service Xcel Energy offers that provides tools and resources to help communities better understand their energy use."
Longmont City Staff are interested in the data and assistance Xcel can provide in to enhance existing programs while expanding on new programs. In all there are four specific areas of interest.
- Commercial benchmarking. Xcel Energy would provide a simplified method for Longmont’s commercial customers to obtain their usage data for benchmarking. This data aids customers in understanding their natural gas usage in order to increase efficiency, and will be used in conjunction with electric and water data from the City of Longmont to establish an energy efficiency score. Additionally, City staff will leverage Xcel Energy’s experience in reaching out and engaging commercial customers on energy benchmarking.
- Residential low-income energy efficiency program. This program can effectively reduce greenhouse gas emissions and lower energy costs. Xcel Energy currently contributes approximately 25% of the program cost. Xcel Energy will assist City staff in promoting this program and improve outreach to customers who need this assistance.
- Just Transition Plan. The goal of the Just Transition Plan is to create an equitable transition to 100% renewable electricity by 2030. Data collaboration with Xcel Energy will help the understanding and qualification of the potential utility burden facing the more vulnerable community members, as well as identify barriers to accessing energy efficiency services.
- Sustainable business program. Currently this program recognizes businesses that make substantial efforts to reduce their energy use, environmental impact, social responsibility, and contributions to the economic vitality of the community.
Concern was raised by councilmember on how entering into such a partnership with Xcel would benefit the City of Longmont in terms of reducing Longmont's use of greenhouse gases.
Robert Love, Longmont Power and Communications key account manager assured council that the data gathered would allow council to see where and possibly how greenhouse gas emissions could be further reduced in support of reaching the City's overall sustainability goals.
Council unanimously voted to support the MOU, with Councilmembers Marcia Martin and Joan Peck reluctantly voting yes. The two councilmembers are interested in the data however, they remain skeptical of the overall partnership in regards to supporting sustainability goals.
