Welcome to the Summer Colorado Community Summit! August 13, 2019 Today’s Agenda 8:00 Breakfast & Registration 8:30 Welcome & Introductions 8:45 Organization Panel Addressing Energy Needs in Under-Resourced Populations 9:30 Networking Time First 15 minutes: Speed Networking Activity 10:00 Community Panel Successes and Challenges 10:45 Recap & Wrap-up Goals for Today • Connect with experts and resources • Hear community success stories and challenges • Remember that each community is different and that your definition of success is likely different than others • Gain a framework for thinking critically about what strategies might be most effective in your community Community Welcome & Partners in Energy Updates Impact through 2018 NOW AT 21! CO Partners in Energy Communities Graduates • Englewood • Erie • Lafayette • Littleton • Louisville • Minturn • National Western Center Implementation • Broomfield Planning • Centennial • Greeley • Denver Municipal • Nederland • Denver EV • Northglenn • Fort Collins • Pueblo County • Garfield County • Jefferson County • Summit County • Westminster • Wheat Ridge 6 News & Updates • Next Exchange • Next Office Hours • Toolkits • Portal • Xcel Energy Program News Community Connect • Why are we here? • Why “under- resourced” focus? What is “under-resourced”? Households that: Household Size Gross Annual • Experience a high rate of Income Limit energy burden 1 $24,120 • Percentage of gross 2 $32,480 household income spent 3 $40,480 on energy costs 4 $49,200 • Are on a fixed income 5 $57,560 • Are eligible for programs 6 $65,920 with income limits 7 $74,280 • Speak a language other 8 $82,640 Source: Colorado Energy Office Low-Income qualifications than English (https://www.colorado.gov/pacific/energyoffice/weatherization-faqs) Colorado Energy Burden Source: Low-Income Energy Affordability Data (LEAD) Tool (https://www.energy.gov/eere/slsc/maps/lead-tool) Other Statistics According to the American Community Survey by the US Census Bureau, in 2017: • 15.7% of Coloradoans are minorities • 24.5% of 18+ citizens in Colorado speak English less than “very well” • 11.5% of Coloradoans live below poverty line • 8.0% of 60+ citizens in Colorado live below poverty line • 4.7% of female Coloradoans live below poverty line Source: American Community Survey, US Census Bureau (https://factfinder.census.gov/faces/nav/jsf/pages/community_facts.xhtml) Organization Panel Addressing Energy in Under-Resourced Populations Panelists • Diedra Howard – Xcel Energy • Andy Caler – Energy Outreach Colorado • Ryan Harry – Colorado Energy Office • Jen Garner – Root Policy Research Customer Policy and Assistance Aug.13, 2019 Xcel Energy Serving eight states • 3.6 million electricity customers • 2 million natural gas customers Nationally recognized leader: • Wind energy • Energy efficiency • Carbon emissions reductions • Innovative technology • Storm restoration Xcel Energy Priorities Customer Policy and Assistance What We Do • Provide support to vulnerable/at-risk customers through • Agency/energy assistance referrals • Medical account monitoring/assistance • Regulatory/Policy advisement on vulnerable customer issues • Manage internal/rule-mandated programs • Account referrals for weatherization, social/protective services 17 Customer Policy and Assistance Who We Work With • Customers • Federal/State Energy Assistance Organizations • External Assistance Agencies • Law Enforcement and Social Services • Legal/Regulatory/Government Affairs 18 Colorado Affordability Programs • Gas and Electric Affordability programs • Bill payment assistance, focused on high consumption, lowest income households • Provides over $7 MM each year in supplemental energy bill payment assistance 19 Other Colorado Programs • Colorado Medical Certificate program • Rule mandated, assists over 7,000 customers per year • Colorado I-70 Noise Mitigation Project • Collaboration with EOC • 270 Xcel Energy households participating • Colorado Medical Exemption Program • Provides discounts to eligible households in summer months • Approximately 1,000 households enrolled in 2019 20 Colorado Weatherization Assistance Program (“WAP” for short) Last year WAP: • Assisted 3,759 Colorado residents in 1,599 homes • Installed over 1 million square feet of attic insulation • Installed 539 furnaces • Installed over 210,000 square feet of wall insulation • Installed 441 refrigerators • Installed nearly 22,000 LED lightbulbs Electricity/Gas Price Comparison $40.00 6.0 $35.00 5.0 $30.00 4.0 $25.00 $20.00 3.0 $15.00 2.0 $10.00 Residential Energy Price ($/MMBtu 1.0 Electricity Cost as Multiple of Gas Cost $5.00 $0.00 0.0 Electricity Gas Electricty Cost Comparison Program Details • Program started in July 2017 • 154 systems interconnected • 42 systems in the queue • 2.94 kW average system size • $2.74/W average system cost • $460 average annual savings per home Front Range Detail What’s Next? • Give all WAP clients access to solar • Begin installing rooftop solar outside of Xcel territory • Increase rooftop solar provision to 10 to 20 percent of WAP homes • Use community solar gardens to provide solar to remaining 80 to 90 percent of WAP clients LOW INCOME ENERGY PROGRAMS IN COLORADO ENERGY OUTREACH COLORADO OUR PROCESS ENERGY OUTREACH COLORADO HOW WE REDUCE ENERGY CONSUMPTION Low Income Energy Efficiency Programs • Colorado Affordable Residential Energy Program (CARE) • Multifamily Affordable Housing Program • Nonprofit Energy Efficiency Program • Energy Behavior Change Program • Community Solar Garden Subscriptions 35 ENERGY OUTREACH COLORADO Andy Caler Director of Energy Efficiency Programs [email protected] 303-226-5064 Partners in Energy Engaging Communities PRESENTED BY Heidi Aggeler, Managing Director Denver, Colorado 80220 970.880.1415 x 102 [email protected] Why is ● Critical to understand residents’ community needs, experiences, and preferences engagement ● Tells the stories behind the data important to us? ● Critical to strategically and successfully target resources (and fix broken systems) ● Effective to move policy because elected officials care about what their constituents think ● It is also really fun and rewarding research! 38 ● Meetings are Boring (especially if If engagement is the world isn’t ending) so important, ● Meetings are Scary – Mistrust (we’ve been burned by you before, or you’ve already decided why don’t more what you want to happen and are just residents here to check a box.) – Inaccessible (the date, time, location, participate? and format are convenient for you, not me) – It’s not for me (I’m not…rich, white, a homeowner, a bicyclist, an expert, educated, old, young, …someone who matters to people like you) ● People are Busy (You are; they are too) ● We don’t Invite them 39 Best Practices in Engagement Community meetings—Make engagement fun!!! ● You are competing with sports events, concerts, Netflix, television, children’s activities ● Involve children by having family friendly activities and inviting children’s groups to perform (plus, parents come to watch their kids) ● Vary the format and be interactive ● Hold the event at a day, time and place convenient to the residents you want to engage. ● Provide incentives to attend—food and beverages, entertainment, free transportation, connections to resources ● Clearly state in promotions why you want residents to come and why it matters that they show up 40 Best Practices in Engagement Surveys and Pop Up engagement—Meet people where they are!!! ● Bring the engagement to the people ● Ask questions that matter to the resident and that they can answer based on their personal experience, preferences or opinions. ● Mind the digital divide (more on this later) ● Incentives matter! – Include a chance to enter a drawing for a $100 gift card to a lucky survey respondent and have candy or party favors for kids ● Market surveys through existing wait lists for services 41 Best Practices in Engagement Understand your target market: ● Pull and analyze American Community Survey (ACS, annual Census) data to determine activities, geographic areas, languages, cultural nuances – https://factfinder.census.gov/faces/nav/jsf/pages/index.xhtml ● Throughout the engagement process, ask “Who is not at the table who should be?” 42 Best Practices in Engagement Mind the digital divide, it is wider for older adults, low income households, limited English populations ● Some people lack Internet access at home or on their device ● Some people lack devices to access the Internet ● Some people are not comfortable with basic Internet skills (including email, websites/forms), terminology, or device functionality Be cautious of the next new shiny-online-engagement tool. Pretest it for ease of use by people with little to no online skills and BE SURE that it works for people who are visually impaired and using screen reading devices. Invite partners to be part of the engagement (see next slide) 43 Community Engagement in a Box Use to build capacity and ownership of engagement with partners: ● Empowers partners to use the tools developed for community engagement​ ● Expands the reach of community engagement beyond your area of influence ● Consists of partner distribution of resident survey, hosting stakeholder and resident focus groups, facilitating “pop up” engagement, hosting community open houses 44 What’s in the Box? (We literally send a box) ● Resident surveys with postage-paid art embedded in the printed survey instrument (fold, staple/tape, drop in a mailbox) ● Resident survey promotional materials​ ● Community conversations