February 2020

Do you have a program idea worth stealing.... er, sharing?

“Progress Through Plagiarism” is a phrase we jokingly say at the annual Aspen event as shorthand for how much we all gain by “stealing” utility customer-centric program practices from one another. If you have something worth sharing, please consider responding to the Call for Presenters for the 14th Rocky Mountain Utility Exchange before Feb. 13. Our agenda planning process is very transparent: anyone can propose a session; the Utility Advisory Committee ranks submissions they most want to hear, and staff builds the agenda accordingly. You can propose to speak for as little as 5 minutes or as much as 2 hours... or offer to present a poster during the Wednesday reception. Hint: The Committee REALLY likes to hear utility case study experiences so having a utility presenter or co-presenter is the best way to get highly-ranked. Solution providers who propose sessions that read like shameless sales pitches generally get lower marks. We plan to publish the agenda in early March.

Ed Thomas & Tiger Adolf, UtilityExchange.org

14th Rocky Mountain Utility Exchange, Sept. 29 - Oct. 2, 2020

Call for Presenters Closes Thursday, Feb. 13

If your organization has success collaborating with other utilities and/or other departments in your own utility to take a customer-oriented approach to achieve greater impacts in residential, commercial, and industrial end-use applications, take this opportunity to demonstrate your achievement and pass the knowledge on to others by submitting a presentation proposal.

The Utility Advisory Committee Exchange give preferential consideration to sessions that explore utility case study best practices and lessons learned about programs related to energy (gas and electricity) efficiency, and integration with renewable energy, flexible load management, strategic load growth, and other customer-facing initiatives.

Learn More and Submit Your Presentation

Registration is Open

It's not too early for attendees and sponsors to register and book a guest room reservations at Aspen Meadows (we will sell out). Details are at www.utilityexchange.org/14th-conference-attend.

Organizations in the News

Aspen Skiing Co. Celebrates Energy Upgrades

Black Hills Energy, in partnership with Franklin Energy and Holy Cross Energy, awarded Aspen Skiing Co with $60,000 in rebates in January. Aspen Sking Company Energy Manager Ryland French, past Rocky Mountain Utility Exchange co-chair, discussed the energy upgrades which included retrofit to two restaurants. Kitchen exhaust and air-intake systems were updated so that instead of both fans operating at full capacity continually during work hours, they now have hood sensors that react to the amount of heat and smoke build-up.

Read the full article in the Aspen Daily News HERE.

Ryland French,
Aspen Skiing Company

Tri-State G&T Helps Launch Beneficial Electrification League Chapter in Colorado

Led by Tri-State Generation and Transmission, Colorado is home to the first state chapter of the national Beneficial Electrification League (BEL). NRECA and Natural Resources Defense Council created the League to broaden understanding of what beneficial electrification is and how it can save money for electricity providers and consumers while also reducing environmental impacts.

Learn more HERE

Xcel Energy Assesses Non-Wires Alternatives

Xcel Energy is entering into distribution planning regulatory proceedings in Colorado and Minnesota, and teamed up with EPRI to conduct a non-wires alternative analysis to verify some of the assumptions it was making regarding the potential need for upgrades relative to the cost of DSM related options. The wires alternative Xcel Energy and EPRI examined was to add a new substation transformer base at a cost of about $10 million. There's no more capability to add another feeder to this existing transformer.

Read the full UtilityDive article HERE.

Archive Presentations Are Free to Everyone

Whether you attended last year's Exchange or not, the UtilityExchange.org archives are available to you. If you attended, we can't think of a better way to allow you to share what you learned with others. If you weren't there, this is the place to learn what you missed. Please bookmark this page and if it asks for a username and password please know that you can create a free user profile if you don't already have one. 2019 workshop topics included: