It's time for this biweekly meeting of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee of Denver City Council.

Join us for the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee starting now.

Good afternoon.

Good afternoon.

Cashman, is this you?

Okay, there we go.

Good afternoon.

My name is Chantel M.

Lewis, and I represent the residents of District 8.

Welcome to our Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.

Do you have around online?

All right, right.

Well, we'll start with you, Castle.

Good afternoon.

Paul Cashman, South Denver District 6.

Great.

Thank you.

So we have one action item and we have one briefing.

Our first action item is actually done by from the Denver International Airport.

And so you all can do a round of introductions and get started.

Phil Washington, CEO of Denver International Airport.

Jim Sterling, I'm the Chief Construction and Infrastructure Officer.

Scott Morrissey, the Senior Vice President for Sustainability.

Thank you.

We'll dive right in.

Thank you.

Well, first, uh, thank you everyone for being here and allowing us to talk about our latest solar program that we are presenting to you today.

Um, I did want to start with just some high-level context about the airport's broader solar program.

As you know, this is just one piece of our sustainability portfolio, um, includes everything from our ISO 14,001 environmental management system to our green building and infrastructure program to our energy performance contract to our stormwater and glycol um collection program to our waste reduction programs.

But this really is part of our program that we are probably best known for across the country.

Um, it is really one of the largest renewable energy programs of any airport within the entire world.

Um, the vast majority of our solar portfolio is the kind of project that we're going to be talking about today, which is a ground mounted behind the meter um uh photovoltaic system.

Um, but we have done a number of different programs over the course of the last several years to try to diversify our solar portfolio, including community solar gardens, both um ones that we've done independently and those that we've done with our partners in the climate office, um, as well as um concourse expansion rooftop solar that we installed as part of those programs.

Um, we have a solar canopy at on the 61st and pain yeah parking lot, um, and we do subscribe to Excel Energy's Renewable Connect program, which allows us to access power from solar that's generated that just doesn't happen to be on the airport site.

Um, but for this particular project and requested council action, um, we are requesting approval of two connected contracts to allow this solar project to move forward.

Um, the first is a lease agreement.

Um, both of these contracts are 25 years in the lease agreement and license as well as the power purchase agreement gives us the ability to have all of the approvals that we need to be able to implement this solar solution.

Um so focused on the lease agreement itself.

Um, there is a um defined rent that has been established at fair market value in um in accordance with FAA regulations.

Um it is a 90-acre lease, so this will be the largest solar project that we've ever done um at Den.

And um we believe it is also the largest solar project in the entire city and county of Denver.

Um, and there is significant revenue that comes along with this.

Um, in terms of the power purchase agreement, um, the power purchase agreement is the mechanism by which we actually purchase the solar that gets generated by this PV system.

Um we have worked very hard over the course of the last 17 years now that we've been doing solar projects at the airport to make sure that we are um really focused to have to ensure that these are the best possible um financial investments for the airport to make, um, but also come with all of the environmental benefits that we're going to talk about.

And so this particular project um again is a uh 17.5 uh I'm sorry, an 18 megawatt um uh PV system, um, but it comes with a 17.5% reduction on each kilowatt hour of electricity that gets purchased compared to um the typical um Excel rate tariff that we would otherwise be playing paying.

And so we've really focused on this index approach.

So rather than paying a specific rate, we have indexed it to the avoided cost of electricity to ensure that we get an immediate cost savings, but that that cost savings will persist over the entire 25-year term.

You can see some of the energy benefits associated with it.

But again, I would just point out this is a very large system projected to generate 31 million kilowatt hours of electricity, which even in the context of the airport in our operations is a is a significant amount.

This project being a power purchase agreement, it is financed, designed, constructed, operated, and maintained by the solar developer.

This is a really advantageous model for public sector entities because it allows developers who have experience in solar development to come in, take all of the risk associated with the cost.

There is no upfront cost of the airport, the production risk, the long-term financial risk, all of that is pushed to the developer.

And we do, as an airport, what we do best, which is purchasing electricity to support the airport operations and to support our greenhouse gas emission reduction goals.

Both the city and the state have building performance standards that have been rolled out in the last couple of years.

I think you know that we have been really focused on lead certifications for new construction.

Three out of our last four concourse expansion projects were all certified to the lead platinum level, which is the highest level within that program.

And having solar like this is very supportive of all of those kinds of external requirements that we have.

So in terms of the contract itself, Disbo did review this project and determined that it was exempt from goals.

And the reason for that is because of the way that Excel Energy procures solar projects to it to meet their internal and statewide goals.

From the city's perspective, this is actually a sole source contract.

The reason for that is Excel has a responsibility under the state renewable portfolio standard to procure a certain percentage of electricity from renewable sources.

They do programs like this to determine who is going to be developing those sites, where those sites are ultimately going to be.

And then the airport has decided to partner with the firm that won that competitive procurement.

And so there's not another developer that would have the opportunity to build and to interconnect into the grid a system of this size, and certainly not at this kind of cost structure.

I do have a slide about the contractor, Oakleaf Energy Partners.

This is the work that they do.

They partner with private, with public sector organizations to be able to realize the benefits of solar production for the benefit of our organization and the communities that we serve.

I won't reiterate this too much except to say that this project is really an example of the kind of triple bottom line sustainability solutions that we try to find at the airport.

Significant environmental benefits, significant financial benefits, as well as just the visibility to the community of when you fly into the airport, you see a lot of solar on the ground.

After this project is done, there's going to be approaching 300 acres of solar panels that have been that have been implemented by the airport.

And we think that you know, with the concept of the airport as the welcome center for the state, seeing that commitment to renewable energy provides a lot of other benefits as well.

And so in conclusion, um, we are seeking approval of this lease agreement and this power purchase agreement to be able to implement this 18 megawatt solar project.

And with that, happy to answer any questions that any council members might have.

Yes, okay.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Um I saw on, and thank you for the presentation.

I'm excited that there's an effort for solar power.

I think on slide four, uh, there was a map of the airport.

Is that where the solar panels will go?

Or where will the 90 acres of panels be?

Yeah, so the um this project is going to be with the majority of the rest of the solar installations we have on the north side of the airfield.

And so if you're looking at this, I recognize that everyone might not have the same familiarity with the airport site, but on the north side of this picture.

Um we do that for a couple of different reasons, um, but primarily is that um there are FAA regulations regarding um glare for air traffic control towers and for approach um of aircraft.

And so um there is a tool that is used by airports all around the country to confirm that when they're building new solar rays, um, that it's not going to create any kind of glare risks, and so we make sure that we have our solar in a place that it won't create any other kind of operational impact.

Okay, great.

Um that was really what I was interested in as to where the 90 acres is that it goes on.

Um and are they new nine?

Is it a new 90 acres or did you say it was with the existing location?

Um it is adjacent to the existing location, but it is um a site that has not previously had solar before.

Okay, great.

Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you.

Um I forgot to welcome Councilman Hines.

Yes, and Councilman Flynn, you're in the UK.

Thank you.

Uh just a quick question to build on that.

When the crews are there from Oakley for their contractor, how do we handle the security badging for these folks who are really non, I mean, they're non-aviation related.

They're they're using our land to generate uh solar energy.

How do we make sure that where they come in?

I suppose it'll be coming in from the north from 104th or somewhere from the along there.

Uh are we equipped to um have security clearance up there from TSA or tell me?

Yeah, that that's correct.

I believe that the um contractors themselves are badged, but this um array is outside of the security fence, and so it's it's not the same kind of property.

Correct.

But not within the air fuel.

Correct.

And so not the same kind of concerns that you would have to do.

Is that true of all the other array arrays?

I I believe that, yeah, I believe that is true.

And I I would just point out the um, you know, I mentioned the concourse expansion solar that we have on the rooftops.

Um everyone's familiar with the solar array from 2008, that is along Painy Boulevard and the A line on the way into the airport.

The vast majority of the rest of the solar is in this drenal area.

Yeah, that's that's very helpful.

Just hard to see on the aerial photography or Google uh where the fence is.

So appreciate that.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you.

I do have a few questions that came up.

Um, so does the lease agreement include site development plans.

Um I'm sorry that I'm site development.

It it includes um, you know, information about how the site will be developed.

I don't think it's a site development plan in the context of like a CPD site development plan.

Okay, can you talk to more about what you what you're saying versus what you might hear me saying?

Of course.

Um so we are um the once the you know some of the pre-work gets done to confirm exactly the efficiency of the panels, um, the lease agreement is subject to to change.

It might not be exactly 90 acres, it might be 80 acres, depending on the orientation.

And so um the what the lease agreement does is that it provides access within that site to the developer to be able to do the construction work to build up the racking system, build up the panels.

Um it also includes a license agreement to provide access to the uh the runs to the interconnection points.

Um, but that's what the focus of it is because it's not a development per se, but it governs their access to that land that um for the duration of the of the project.

So would it include technical information like what kind of panels would be included?

Um we do not specify the type of panels.

We obviously we work with the developer on that, but what we pro what we require is the you know that certain um metrics are hit, and so it needs to be an 18 megawatt system, um, but we do not prescribe you know the make and model of panels or anything like that.

Okay.

Did you do you all want to add anything?

It's more like performance-based.

We cite the the performance that we want.

Yeah, you can go uh and they do the specifications.

Okay.

Is there a decommissioning plan?

Um there is um the lease requires um the the lease at the end of the term gives us the full flexibility um to make the decision on the final decommissioning.

And so the life cycle of uh of solar panels like this is generally can be a bit more than 25 years.

And so the airport and the city have the ability to make the choice to say do we extend the um power purchase agreement because we believe that we're still seeing those benefits.

Um do we renegotiate the terms of the power purchase agreement?

Do we purchase the system ourselves at that point once all of the tax incentives associated with it have been exhausted?

Or um do we have the developer decommission it?

And so we have all of those choices available to us based on the market conditions for solar at that point, but we do require uh a bond to be put into place to cover those costs at the end of the term if that's the decision that we make.

That was my next question.

Is that my next question?

And so the city would be on the hook for that or not because you would put that bond in place.

The city would not be on the hook for that.

Okay, thank you.

Councilman Flynn, did you have another?

Yeah, just a quick follow-up.

Uh the uh resolution request uh said that the uh the actual site would be mutually agreed upon, but it would be in this general area.

Is the site that I'm looking at on the presentation?

Is has that now been finalized and that will be the location?

Yeah, it is the location.

The reason why that language exists, Councilman Flynn, is because um, as I said, like as the final system design is evaluated when the final um panel efficiency is decided, that might be slightly smaller, um, but it will be in that in that area.

Okay, and is it in Denver County?

Um it is.

Okay, thank you.

That's one.

Thank you.

Um so it looks like no one else is in the queue.

I don't think there's anyone else online.

And so with that, that concludes you all's time.

And if you want to go into announcements, we'd welcome that.

Um just some uh few closing remarks.

We like to take this opportunity to uh give you some short updates, if you will, over the last couple of weeks.

Um the first is on Monday, August 11th.

Um the Federal Aviation Administration kicked off its uh annual inspection process.

We have an annual inspection process called the um um uh 139, part 139 uh inspection.

That particular inspection looks at uh a number of things, uh self-inspection procedures, uh fire department training, airport certification manual, emergency response procedures.

Uh I'm pleased to report that uh the findings of preliminary findings until we get the final report show that the airport received zero deficiencies.

Um and this marks the seventh uh perfect inspection in the last nine years.

Uh it's a track record that is unmatched that I know of any large airport in the country.

And so this is tied directly to our safety certification that we need as an airport, obviously.

Um and so I just wanted to um uh to inform you of that.

Um this is um uh due in in part and and not only part but entirely uh to the dedication and hard work of all of our folks.

Uh and so um wanted to uh let you know that.

The second piece that I uh wanted to make sure the committee was aware of of some important financial credit results from Fitch uh ratings.

Um our ratings are the highest the airport has ever had.

Um uh double A minus rating of Den's 3.9 billion senior airport revenue bonds, an A plus rating of Den's 3.1 uh billion subordinate uh lien bonds.

Uh we have a positive outlook from Fitch on Dennis bonds.

It reflects a strong financial uh performance.

Um of the key strengths that they noted uh in their justification for these strong ratings were uh strong pricing framework um uh under large or long-term agreements uh with leading carriers and den's historic strong financial metrics that we bring to you often.

That's the debt coverage ratio, that is uh the cost per employment, those types of metrics are very, very strong.

Uh and also our track record um uh of late at least um of finishing projects on time and on budget.

All of that goes into the ratings, and then um the last is we recently uh completed runway 17 L 35R.

That is the pavement rehabilitation package project uh project um that um that we just completed.

Uh and uh the project was a very strategic continuation of Dan's pavement management program, uh and it really improves on on our improving payment conditions on runways and on the airfield itself.

So that sort of concludes the the three updates that I wanted to provide.

Thank you.

I just one question in Councilman Flint in the queue after me.

Does the improved um credit ratings affect our ability to refinance our bonds at a better rate in the future?

And do you anticipate that you may?

Yes, it does.

Yes, it does, absolutely.

It's a direct connection to interest payments.

It's a direct uh connection to how we refinance bonds, all of that.

Okay, thank you.

Councilman Clinton.

Um, sorry.

Yeah.

Um thank you.

No, that was my mistake.

No, no, it's fine.

Oh, we look a lot alike.

Great hair.

I don't know if I resent that or not.

Um you mentioned a lot of uh pretty good uh great statistics.

Um you may have mentioned the reserve that you have.

Um would you comment on the reserve the airport has?

Yes.

Um we our metric for cash on hand, which is really our reserves is 500 days.

Um and uh we have a bit more than that now, but we are deploying that cash based on some evaluative criteria that we have in place to select projects and the sequence of projects.

And so as we deploy that cash on hand, we go through the evaluative criteria, which includes safety, operational, we score the proposed projects based on that uh criteria and deploy that cash that way.

Um the metric is 500 days.

Um and so we try not to dip below 500 days, which means if something catastrophic happens, we have reserves for 500 days to run that airport.

Uh and that is, I think um uh unprecedented um uh in the airport world as well.

Uh and that uh along with the other metrics that I mentioned lead to the high credit ratings uh as well.

And so we want to maintain that 500 days.

I um went to an HOA, an annual HOA meeting in the last week, which you know their numbers are slightly smaller than the airport's numbers, um, but uh but they had a very strong reserve and made me think the airport.

Now 500-day reserve, that is something that you've chosen, right?

That's not uh that's not an industry uh requirement or uh Fitch or Moody's uh rating requirement.

That's you just pick that.

No, no, well, you know, it's not arbitrary, I would say.

I mean, it's based on uh a number of factors that we look at internally.

Um but um it it's it's it's good to know that the credit agencies actually agree that that 500 days is a good metric, which is what they're saying in their justification.

Uh and so uh it's uh it has worked for us for uh the last number of years.

Yeah, I think um previous years you even had a higher metric.

I think I want to say 700 days or well, we we may have had 700 days cash on hand, but our metric has been 500 for the last um uh few years.

Uh but we we often go above that, but we don't want to go below it.

And then if the excess 700 days, 750 days, whatever it is, we deploy it strategically based on the the um the evaluative criteria that I mentioned.

So a project comes up, uh perhaps it's on the airfield, we look at that.

Is that safety related?

Is that regulatory?

Is that you know whatever that is, and then we score that against some of the other pressing projects that might be out there.

What do you what is 500 days?

What is that?

Um a dollar, the dollar amount.

I'm looking for the exact number to the payment.

No, no, just we would give you a ballpark, that's the grubby hands.

Um Mike B on the CPO at your board.

So roughly 500 A's equates to, and it depends on the nature of uh how much cost we have in OM, because that's part of the calculation, but it would probably equate to roughly about 900 million dollars.

Yeah, okay.

Yeah, and another thing that we had in our our thank you uh in the con the conversation about the reserve in this very equivalent HOA meeting.

Um not equivalent at all H2A meeting was uh that the there was a multiple the reserve was a multiple of the um annual uh revenue of the it was like six times but the um risk of something happening in a very small HOA is not the the dollar amount of that risk is different than um you know for one runway cost 1.5 billion dollars and something were to happen to a runway, it's not like you can just gussy it up in a weekend and say, we're good, right?

Yeah, so that's also I think also some people might say um man, you could deploy instead of having so many days of reserves, you could be speeding up another kind uh project or whatever.

So um, but I think it's important to recognize that sometimes the you know the the level of things that might happen and uh any entity should be you know considering risk and uh and playing what if that's just the nature of what you do is risk analysis and the level of uh uh a critical event is is higher at the airport than elsewhere.

Yeah, no, it really is.

And uh, you know, a catastrophic event would obviously impact Dan, but it would also impact the national airspace, right?

So this is a national thing as almost as much as it as it is then.

And sorry, I think you're selling yourself short with 320 direct destinations, some of them international, it's not just the national airspace.

That's true.

Impacted.

So thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Yeah, I wasn't.

I had a little PTSD when you mentioned the uh 35 right rehabilitation work.

Is that ever Mike?

I don't know if you were in the uh city attorney's office there at the time, but uh huge trial here litigation between the airport and three B's, Ball Ball and Rosemer.

Is that the runway that we had all the problems with where the concrete was adulterated with clay balls that weren't filtered out, or was that 35 uh left?

I do think it was on the east airfield, so that's where it's on the east airfield.

I don't know if it's 3-5 right or 3-5 left.

But that leads to the question.

Yeah, because they had to tear out a lot of work.

Right.

This is back in like 91 too.

But uh the airport still seems new to me.

You know, I know it's 30 years old that it opened.

The runways are maybe 33 years old.

Yeah.

Uh are we gonna have to do this rehab again soon on what was the first runway?

725, 725.

So actually, 725, we are doing a rehab project on it next year.

So each year we go through.

Um, let me take that back.

Every three years we do a payment analysis on all the payment that's out there, and so it gets formula as it goes through comes up with the score, and then based on those scores is how we prioritize which projects we're gonna do.

But pretty much every year we're working on a runway, whether that is replacing joint sealant or replacing concrete.

We've upgraded all the lights to LED.

Um, so that's been a big project as well.

Um, when we take the runway down, we do that as well.

If 725 does need work, how long would it be closed to aviation?

Because then we would have only one uh crosswind runway.

So we work very closely with FAA and with the airlines to schedule that in our own operations.

Um so that will be about a hundred-day closure of that runway.

Okay.

Okay, because we have four north-south runways, but yeah, this would reduce us to one is less.

But it's always a challenge because in the summer is when the airlines want to make sure that all the runways are open.

Um that's when you want to do the work.

Yeah, and that's the best time to be doing the work.

So what was the cost of the 35 rank?

Was that uh to have to get back to you on the exact number?

Yeah, we get back to you.

Thank you.

A little fun fact.

Um uh this young guy was helped lay the runway when he was an intern almost 30 years ago.

Jim Starling, six runway.

Did you do a ray?

Yes.

I didn't know that.

You were you were that guy?

Yeah.

He has a handprint approval.

Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, of course.

Anyone else?

Go ahead.

Do we need to uh uh do a motion of second time?

Yep.

Uh just one thank you.

Thank you.

We have a send a second from councilman Flynn and Councilman Hines.

Uh, do we need roll call vote?

Lovely.

Okay.

Thank you all so much for your time.

Really appreciate you all being here.

Thank you.

Nice.

True.

With that, we will call it Haz or you all can't get started or begin to set up um these folks exit.

Well, that's what we're doing.

See, thank you for repeated to put a handline.

Thank you.

Good to see you.

No.

Johnny, you know the QC out there is insane.

And then you don't scratch that for you.

Okay.

Do you are you running the slides?

Anything else?

Yeah, okay.

Actually, when they were in first credit, some of them were not the right.

And it'll show up on the screen.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Hello, thank you all for coming.

Looking forward to your presentation.

You all can introduce yourselves and then we can jump in.

Thank you very much for having us.

And Jonathan Rogers, uh, the acting deputy executive director of the Office of Climate Action Sustainability and Resiliency.

Hi, thanks for having us.

Dan Shea with uh Casper as well, uh Senior Energy Policy Advisor.

We appreciate the opportunity to speak with you all today about uh some of the work that we're doing on energy policy and uh decarbonization.

Um, run through here, you know, get kind of that big picture, some of CASER's mission and and vision, the scale of the challenge that we're working to address.

Uh, and then we'll get in a little bit of a deep dive on how we're really affecting change and trying to influence our utility and the institutional decisions that uh really will lead to our decarbonization success.

And look forward to any questions, you know, discussion, follow-up requests that you may have along the way.

Feel free to stop, ask questions.

Um we we hope to be informative, and and we as always really appreciate your partnership uh in helping us with our work.

So our mission is that the climate crisis is solvable and together, we're the ones to solve it.

Um, and that together we can build a carbon pollution-free, sustainable, climate-resilient Denver for all.

Uh, we really try to embrace that solution-oriented mindset, you know, engaging with partners.

This is not the kind of thing that we can accomplish uh individually, whether as a you know, individual agency or even as you know, Denver government alone, the solutions that we're trying to create, they need to be scalable, they need to be replicable, they need to be things that extend beyond our borders, and and we really hope to be a global model of success, and that we can engage our constituents, our community members, our businesses and other institutions as part of the uh solutions that we can bring forward.

Everything that we do is trying to address community problems and systemic issues with those sustainable, scalable, replicable solutions.

Now, I really see two big parts of our puzzle, decarbonization as quickly as possible, while also supporting our communities and in particular, those are the that are most vulnerable to a change in climate uh in our work.

So reflecting a bit on the scale of this challenge, it is a big problem that we are facing.

You know, millions of tons in Denver alone uh of carbon every year.

And energy and transportation are 97% of Denver's core greenhouse gas emissions.

So that's really where we focus.

And it takes infrastructure scale solutions for us to be uh successful.

Um, our three main sectors identified in Denver's greenhouse gas emissions inventory, the thermal transportation and electric sectors.

Uh you can see that the electric sector, the the yellow bars um have historically been uh the vast majority of Denver's emissions, but in the coming decades, thanks to state law and plans approved by the Public Utilities Commission, we're really on a very uh encouraging trajectory uh for decarbonization.

Now, moving that power to where it needs to be when it needs to be there is increasingly our challenge.

We've spoken with you all before about uh energy um capacity constraints, distribution uh infrastructure investments.

So we need to really be working very effectively with state regulators, Excel, Department of Transportation and Infrastructure, community planning and development.

How do we make sure that we actually get the pieces in place where they need to be, uh, effectively connect all of the customers in Denver, whether they're you know commercial, residential, or otherwise, and that we're bringing power uh to them so that they can use it efficiently.

Um, our transportation sector is also showing an encouraging uh uh trajectory.

A lot of that is due to the electrification of vehicles.

That again becomes a electric distribution question of how do we make sure that we get the power to where we need it to charge those vehicles uh when they want to be charged, and that we don't overbuild uh the grid in the process.

I think that's kind of the main risk that we look at from a attainment of our goals perspective is if we're going to have to invest more in our uh electric system, managing our peaks, managing the flow of power, supporting things like energy efficiency are what will help to keep our costs low.

That and as we electrify our heating sector, which you can see uh our thermal sector, we have 225,000 fossil gas customers right now in Denver, and we continue to add about 1,000 every year.

We obviously need to start, you know, flatten that, go in the other direction and accelerate uh dramatically if we're going to achieve our goals and connecting those customers to the most efficient forms of energy and avoiding having that duplicative infrastructure where even if you're only using gas to heat your home or a building for the coldest eight hours of the year, you'll still require 100% of the pipes and the compressors and all of the other infrastructure that goes with it.

So we really don't want Denverites to be paying for two sets of energy infrastructures.

And we've really embraced that mindset of we can electrify everything with you know clean, affordable, you know, sustainable power, and that should enable us to be able to decommission some of these legacy assets that have been important to Denver over the past, say 100 years, but will no longer be needed in terms of where we hope to go, and that should help to save everybody money on our collective energy bills.

Now, a big part of what we need to influence are the billions of dollars that are already happening in recurring institutional investment.

Uh we are extraordinarily fortunate in Denver to have the climate protection fund.

We're really in a league of our own nationally and even globally in terms of what the climate protection fund enables us to do.

Uh, but it's not a blank check for us to buy our way out of or you know, build our own uh set of energy infrastructure.

Excel makes $5 billion annually on uh their electric and fossil gas businesses.

Uh the public utilities commission has approved over 400 million dollars of annual investment through uh customer focused programming.

And Excel has also identified over 50 billion dollars of potential energy infrastructure uh investments between now and 2050.

So we need to use our 50 million to influence 50 billion.

And let's make sure that it gets spent responsibly and in ways that are actually going to help keep everyone's bills affordable and our energy systems reliable, as opposed to overbuilding, having these duplicative or you know, in systems in triplicate uh that we we that we could better manage.

Uh this chart highlights you know the trajectory that we're on, while it's positive, you know, we still have a ways to go.

And it's really the policy actions that are what bend our trajectory towards uh zero emissions.

Um grid decarbonization is uh far and away the biggest chunk of where we're seeing benefits uh occurring.

Um, the transportation, you know, adoption of uh electric vehicles being next, and then things like Denver's building code and the energized Denver performance policy, our substantial wedges as well.

You know, all of these things are areas that uh we need to be continuing to influence these uh policy decisions that are billion dollar scale, systemic in nature, and we're very fortunate that the resources that we have enable us to do that, to obtain the data, the insights, see which technologies are going to be most successful, what is the customer experience, how do we make sure that we're better benefiting Denver rights and businesses, and that can really uh help with our help with our progress, though there's obviously still work to be done.

Our intersection uh of work and that we have to really affect change, that policy work is on top.

That's how we influence billions of dollars of recurring investments.

Our programs where we invest in the community and our projects where we lead by example through our municipal facilities and operations, that's where we show what's possible.

You know, we want to invest in our community so that A, we're making sure that folks don't get left behind uh or stuck on a legacy system, and you know, we don't want anyone to be the ones left uh holding the bag.

Uh, we want folks to be able to electrify in their communities, to have you know affordable, reliable, carbon-free options, but we also need to walk the walk or we lose our credibility with the with the communities.

So that's why it's important for us to be doing things like uh improving the energy efficiency of municipal buildings, electrifying our HVAC systems, transitioning to an all-electric fleet, and doing so in a way that others can follow and see this is a very pragmatic approach to successfully uh tackle these issues.

And last but not least, our foundation is our partnerships.

As I mentioned in the start, we cannot do this alone.

The actions of others are what determine our success, you know, whether that's uh city leaders, state regulators, you know, folks in the Excel Energy Boardroom, you know, we need to be bringing everybody along in terms of what works and the community uh first and foremost in mind, their experience.

Our actions have real consequences for you know the daily lives of everyone in Denver and then potentially beyond, given how we hope that our work is amplified.

So we need to be very, very cognizant of who we work with, how we work with them, and how our actions are impacting others.

Okay, now getting into some of the uh specific work here on our energy and utility strategy.

You know, these three pillars here affordable, reliable, pollution free, they govern everything that we do.

They are uh non-exclusive, you know, they they must happen together.

You know, if we have the perfect solution to be zero emissions tomorrow, but everybody's utility bills go up by 10x, you know, they'll I won't have a job.

Like we won't be able to continue to do the work that we do.

So we're we're constantly balancing those things of affordability, reliability, and pollution reductions.

And we believe that they can absolutely be accomplished together.

We're preparing for widespread electrification.

That's really emerged as far and away the most promising option to achieve that end vision.

And as we saw in the preview, uh one of the prior slides, the thermal energy sector is particularly stubborn, especially in Denver, where it is very real.

We have negative 20 degree days that happen, and that's what you're designing your energy system to be able to accommodate.

Um we can't have you know uh people losing their heat uh through that kind of a uh through an event.

So we need to find those sustainable thermal alternatives that can really meet uh Denver's needs, especially in places like downtown where you have a very dense urban core that is going to require some unique solutions.

Our CASER initiatives really help to inform that institutional action.

We we do a number of uh studies where we're always gathering information and we invest through programs both in the community and through ourselves.

That information, those real world insights, they help to influence change via our state regulators and and otherwise.

We've assessed uh you know, ask the question in an electrified Denver, how many substations will we need and where might we put them?

As well as depending on our technology choices, how can we build as few new substations as possible?

How can we get the most from the existing infrastructure that we already have, and perhaps just use it in new ways that are more cost effective while uh providing for that reliability?

We're looking at uh changes to rate structures to make sure that we're reducing customers' energy burdens, and we're supporting that shift to uh all electric heating, cooling, you know, that non-emitting utility service that we really need to power us for the next hundred years.

Uh downtown identifying the lowest cost pathways to have a carbon-free downtown that is still scalable and supportive of Denver's growth.

We've been selected as a gas planning priority community to invest in targeted projects for neighborhood scale electrification that would also then enable decommissioning of portions of the gas system and become a model for how we could scale this system-wide and beyond Denver.

Denver will be one of the first communities in the state with this opportunity.

And uh, you know, while we have 225,000 fossil gas customers here, there's over 1.5 million across Colorado, and then obviously a heck of a lot more beyond that uh around the country that are going to be looking to us for answers.

Um as we're investing uh in our community members, in our own facilities, we get a lot of real world data on uh cost, performance, customer experience, so that we can give really good advice in terms of where we go from here.

The PUC and Excel Energy, we're very grateful uh for the regulatory structure that we have in Colorado, uh, the state and the regulators that we have create a very uh participatory process that Denver is fortunate to have a seat at the table at that influences these multi-billion dollar, if not you know, 100 million dollar uh decisions on these recurring cycles.

So every two years, three years, we're going from, hey, what do our investments in the community need to look like to decarbonize our heating sector?

What does the next 10-year outlook look like for our distribution grid and our customers having challenges interconnecting that we need to address?

You know, what is the bulk you know, power requirement that we need, and do we need to build large-scale wind and solar arrays and battery storage and obtain the generating assets that we need to keep our lights on clean power and so on.

And so we participate those in a in a cyclical basis.

We engage with other uh you know, city agencies and uh community groups, and uh, of course, always try to you know hear from you all and your constituents as much as possible to help us point it in the right direction.

Some examples of our success uh through that uh state-led regulatory process.

Uh, we now have an approved plan to reduce electric sector emissions by over 85% with cost caps on how much customer bills can increase over time.

All coal plants in Colorado retired by 2030, as well as investment in the transmission and the distribution infrastructure that will be needed to move that power uh to where uh to where we want it.

Excel's quality of service plan, we were through our advocacy, we're able to be a part of a group that doubled the bill credits that will go to customers who experience poor service with a particular emphasis on census blocks that are disproportionately impacted communities, so that we can make sure that there's not a double standard in terms of who gets reliable power and who doesn't, as well as penalties on Excel if customer complaints exceed certain thresholds, automatic fines get processed that can then get prorated out to customers.

As I mentioned earlier, we were selected as the neighborhood scale electrification community.

We're receiving 10 million dollars of PUC approved funds, working in partnership with the Colorado Energy Office and others to help identify hey, where can we invest?

How can we do this most successfully to meet some of our long-term goals?

In the clean heat plan, we were able to end up doubling the portion of the budget going towards more proven solutions such as beneficial electrification and managing our peak loads as opposed to some of the original ideas that were put forward.

At least 20% of that budget going to support uh equity priority customers and expanding uh the emphasis on all electric new cons uh new construction by more than six times the original proposal.

Um the counterpart of that uh clean heat plan, or there's additional plans related to beneficial electrification and demand side management.

Uh rebates for cold climate heat pumps in particular were increased 4x versus the original proposal.

That was directly related because Denver ran our own heat pump rebate program, uh demonstrated that the technology was working well in our climate zone, that customer adoption was above and beyond what Excel had seen in prior years, and the commission felt very confident that uh it was just the incentives weren't set right in the Excel programs and pushing folks more towards this technology or what were going to be in the long-term benefits of the system and help to put our dollars, our system-wide dollars uh towards some of those outcomes.

Um, and the last bullet there, I don't want to gloss over uh development of a new on-bill financing option.

So when you're you know, furnace breaks or you need to replace a piece of equipment, not everyone just has the money in the bank to go out and do it.

So for these all-electric, you know, cleaner technologies, uh, new financing options where that money can be brought up front by the utility, paid back over time on utility bills, designed with interest rates and recovery structures that are equity-minded to try to make sure that the most affordable option is also the most sustainable option.

So we've been working for several months now with uh older Colorado Energy Office, other environmental uh advocacy groups, uh, and Excel with the oversight of the PUC to develop a new offering that will then be able to iterate on over time, but we're very encouraged by uh I think this starting point.

Uh last slide here before uh we would love to hear from you all.

Um, I spent a lot of time with the microphone the other day uh at the uh the the franchise hearing.

Yeah, that that's one tool or or aspect of our relationship with Excel Energy.

Uh as I mentioned earlier, I am very grateful that they are regulated by the state.

You know, they are an entity that controls a lot of our destiny, though we also have ways to control them and to influence them.

And oftentimes it is not you know voluntary.

I think that's what I would emphasize on the franchise.

It's a mutually agreed upon relationship between Excel and the city, predominantly granting access to our right of way for them to deliver deliver utility service to uh customers in Denver.

The nature of that service is regulated by the PUC, where any dollar that they spend, PUC needs to give it a stamp of approval, the rates that they're charging to customers, the rules governing interconnection to the system, what programs are offered, uh, what performance metrics will be adhered to, and whether or not uh Excel will be subjected to fines.

Um I'm very glad that the PUC gets to make those determinations and that we get to influence them from our direct experience that we have in the city, and we've proven very effective in terms of how we engage in that arena.

You know, additionally, we do have the right as a municipal jurisdiction to consider local laws and ordinances that may govern other aspects of the system or use of the right-of-way, or what our expectations are of any private entity that puts things in our right-of-ways.

You know, we should know what's there, how it's being used, and whether or not it meets our expectation.

I think the more that Excel can see their opportunity to run a healthy utility is one that provides that affordable reliable all electric you know non-emitting service for customers um we'll start to see their investments their behaviors really trend in alignment with with Denver's goals I think some of my my biggest concern of of having outstanding question marks related to the franchise and uh what comes next is we have a lot of work to do and if things are not in place that enable us to be a full participant in these state regulated processes, you know, if we're arguing about you know which private entity should be the one that's granted permission to provide utility service to Denver for the next 20 years we'll spend 10 years litigating that fight and we might miss an opportunity to make meaningful progress where we we've seen that we have the chance to really uh move the needle.

So I think you know in closing we are fully in recognition of just how hard the job is that's ahead of us are constantly striving to identify the tools that we have available the jurisdictions uh that we need to participate in to um effect change and we're always looking for your partnership and that of others to help us be most successful across those various venues that we need to and intend to continue to uh participate in I think that effectively you know sums up the uh uh the final slide here hitting some of those points so with that thank you and any questions and hopefully we'll get the chance to be back and keep talking to to you all about our progress uh over time here.

Yeah thank you and we're looking forward to that um partnership and you all coming here regularly uh before we get into the speaking queue I'd like to welcome council president Sanoval online um and then we have Councilman Hines in the queue followed by councilwoman Alvides thank you uh committee chair uh thank you so much for the presentation and uh and all your hard work I know that the franchise agreement conversation was not um uh not an easy one so um thanks for uh thanks for mentioning it it is uh you know something that I I said I wanted a a continued conversation and I just want you to know I'm still interested um in that um honest continued conversation so um I said I think I said this um you know a couple weeks ago uh the idea is not to um to have a public roast of anyone or any entity the idea is um we uh we don't have the kind the the kinds and volume of lobbying interests at the city that the state and federal levels do um and so a lot of times the way we get experts um to provide information is by asking the community and uh and so that that's what I'm interested in in a uh you know in a community conversation is finding those experts who know um former chairs of the POC or uh people whose uh careers have been to negotiate um you know contracts with uh regulated monopolies I think that's uh so again I just I see me there I see me on the camera I also I just want to put it on the record that the idea is not to to roast anyone it is um that is community conversations or how we did um you know our uh lobbying input or subject matter expertise the city um I yeah the um CASA is um that you mentioned is is an international standard and uh and I just I really want to thank Parks and Rec for that or actually thank Joan Clark who's now uh you know Joan Texman Clark um was uh was on city council representing district seven and this is uh one of his um you know he really led and uh and leaned in and as a result we do have um a dedicated source of funds for our frankly our continued habitability on this planet so um so yeah thank you um thank you to former council member clerk now director clerk uh for uh for making that happen um another comment you had um we don't want anyone left behind in the energy transition um it's interesting I have said the same thing um we ended up uh adding standards around um uh electric vehicle charging stations and their access to parking for people with uh access to for people with disabilities um including the parking space itself and access to the charger um as I don't want people with disabilities to be um easily identifiable because everyone else has already made the energy transition to an electric vehicle and the only people left are the people with disabilities um because they can't access the electric vehicle charging stations so they have to continue to use gas vehicles and I have a fully electric vehicle now which um I

Because they can't access the electric vehicle charging stations, so they have to continue to use gas vehicles.

And I have a fully electric vehicle now, which I immediately after I got it, did a road trip to visit my family in Texas, which was really tough.

But I know that that's something that you have worked with Excel about is access to electrovehicle charging stations here in the city.

You've uh provided some financial incentives for single-family homeowners, permits, and I think more recently condominium uh buildings.

I think that's something that I was asking about for a while.

So thanks for uh for addressing that.

Excel.

So glad on it and um you mentioned a 50 million dollar cows are hoping to influence a 50 billion dollar Excel um shirt on its face that sounds like we're the tailwagon the dog, um, but our customers are the same, at least as far as the footprint for the city of Denver, and um, and I think the customers uh in Denver voted heavily for um uh for the climate protection fund.

Um you know, it wasn't 5149, it was you know of strong majority.

Um, and I would I don't represent the whole city, but I would say the people of District 10 really are interested in uh minimizing the human impact on our planet and and our human habitability.

Why do I keep saying that?

Like 100,000 years after we destroy our own habitability, the planet will return to what it was, you know, um, before we started digging up dinosaurs and spewing it in the air, uh, which is nothing as far as you know, the 100,000 years is nothing relative to the um the timeline of uh of a planet.

So that's why I keep saying it's habitability that we're impacting.

Um but I um I think that's the crux of the conversation though, is how do we make sure that our customers and Excel's customers are really um reflected in our arrangement with the with the people of Denver and Excel's arrangement with the people of Denver.

And I that's what I I felt was off.

That I think that was the crux of what I felt was off.

Even today, um, I had district 10 constituents uh coming in for something entirely unrelated to uh to the office.

They were in City Hall for the judicial branch, and the one thing they mentioned other than hello was be sure you tell Excel that they are not good neighbors in Golden Triangle, that they um let glitter and trash and graffiti um happen on their property and um and encampments when we had encampments, and that's um that's not okay.

Um so it's like though they could have said anything, and that was the one thing that they um were sure to share.

And so it's just a it's a continued pain point, and as I mentioned directly to Excel, and again I'm on camera, um, so but Excel, this isn't new information.

Um, we want to make sure that um that our customers are um are taken care of.

Uh we want to make sure Excel's customers are taken care of, and and there's a dissonance there when we um when our uh our constituents reach out to Excel feel like they're getting a stonewall, so then they reach out to us and we reach out to Excel and still feel stonewalled.

So I don't know if that's a if there's something we can do to have that in the community conversation, but I think that's the um that's that's uh one of the biggest reasons why I voted no on the franchise agreement is uh one you know having we can get subject matter expertise in that community conversation, but two, I want to make sure that um that that the our um that we have that uh that conversation um so that people don't rage vote, you know, something maybe that's unrelated to the actual issue, um, but they vote no because man, the Excel substation and Golden Triangle and Cap Hill are you know, um are just not up to snuff.

Um, but they vote no because man, the Excel substation and Golden Triangle and Cap Hill are you know, um, are just not up to snuff.

Um I'm almost done.

I'm sorry.

Uh the um I've also read um, you know, I've been paying more attention to energy infrastructure uh because of the franchise conversation.

And I read that um that there are other countries that have so much extra energy that um that they're saying we may have already lost the uh artificial intelligence rates uh because we're struggling to um we've got economy in downtown that cannot install a new uh breaker panel for electric vehicle charging stations.

Meanwhile, there are some countries who have so much extra energy that they can uh they're just installing data centers just to stop up uh some of the extra electricity.

I'm reading this up in the popular media, so maybe it's wrong.

I don't know, but um, but if it if there is authenticity to that, and um and we've got a rickety system that had rolling blackouts in California in 2000.

I I experienced that working for a Silicon Valley company.

We're in Texas um where I'm from, I have left by the those winters, and apparently Ted Cruz left too.

Um for uh but that um you know, having uh um you know energy issues there too.

Like, how can how can I say the tail wagging the dog?

How I'm not sure where the tail wagging the dog, but how do we make sure that we set ourselves up for a resilient future instead of um I keep getting emails from Excel just in the last couple weeks that I should turn my air conditioner up?

I have mine set at 81.

You want me to put it up higher?

I mean, you know, and so um I I just like I would much rather instead of having billions of dollars of profit, um, have an uh an infrastructure that really um where I don't get emails telling me to turn my um air conditioning above 81.

So this is not like I'm not ranting at you.

Um I'm trying to frame my thought process on the record of the conversation, the community plan and and really help you and CASER and the people of Denver have um have a robust and resilient future.

I know the mayor is very interested in artificial intelligence with Dinai.

Uh our governor has said we are the number one city in the world for quantum.

Um I didn't know that until just a few weeks ago.

That's uh that's pretty amazing.

I gotta learn what quantum is.

Um but uh but that takes electricity too.

And um, and so if we're going to be a national leader with AI and a world leader with quantum, and frankly have our air conditioning below 81.

Um we've got to have that honest conversation with cell.

So thank you for bringing up the franchise agreement.

I think we do have work to do there still.

Yes.

And I absolutely agree if I uh respond to some of the points.

And I think a lot of the questions that were raised in that franchise meaning extremely valid and very appropriate to be re-engaging with our council members, with our community members, making sure that we're understanding all the various issues that we're striving to address and that we've identified the appropriate uh places for solutions.

You know, we absolutely want to make sure that we are building the system that can meet the needs of not just right now uh but of the next hundred years.

You know, I do have some concerns of other countries that might have more power than they know what to do with, so let's throw some data centers at it.

Sounds like that was probably built on the backs of their ratepayers and everyone was paying more for you know underutilized infrastructure than they should have been.

So I think you know our strategy on that as we go forward is like, hey, how do we future proof without you know getting massively overblown?

How do we support things like growth, whether it's in data centers and AI or otherwise, but those that want to participate are paying their fair share and not unfairly having it, you know, subsidized by others?

You know, how do we make sure that you know those condo buildings downtown and otherwise when they try to put in breakers for electric vehicle charging, it meets the needs of those customers while also integrating with the grid and some of the other strategies like sending everybody an email of hey, please turn your thermostat up.

Yeah.

I I do recall from our you know, clean heat plant, it's a very low cost way to help free up capacity on the grid is just asking nicely whether or not anyone actually does it, you know, it it shows up in the data, but how does that get paired with other initiatives?

And how do you also not lose the confidence of customers uh on the grid of geez, if you're asking me this, you know, once a week, do you actually know what you're doing?

Like, are you actually running the system effectively?

So there is a line of hey, this is a tool in the toolbox, but if you overuse it, now you're actually gonna lose the faith of the people who depend on you for reliable service.

Oh, and the last point that you raised of the you know, maintaining a clear a clean uh construction site, you know, and folks are doing work in their community.

That's the kind of thing to me that I probably should fall within uh local jurisdiction if there are ordinances or rules that need to be put in place in terms of uh the expectations that we set for anyone doing you know construction uh in the city and how you hold people accountable to it.

So, you know, we're we're here, we're at the table.

We look forward to having the conversations with you all and trying to help hash out hey, what is state jurisdiction or places where we know where we can try to influence where we are now, where we want to go, versus other things where okay, what what do we need to push elsewhere?

And what are the reasonable expectations that we should set for someone that is you know supposed to be our partner and working with us in good faith on mutual efforts?

There's a very fine line between the utility rate payer and the local taxpayer, you know.

And we want to make sure that uh we're we're not you know being dismissive of it.

So thank you for your comments.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

Council Laminal V, James.

Thank you so much.

Um, just to kind of set the framework.

Was this specifically about our relationship with Excel?

I was confused on what the exact topic this presentation was about.

We were told to come and talk about energy policy generally.

Okay.

So this was our intent to uh just on what exactly we're talking about.

Given an overview generally of you know decarbonization, where we're at, where we're going, and the importance of influencing these large scale entities like Excel in terms of our success.

Great.

I appreciate that.

Um, one of the things that's been on my mind, um I saw IRA credits on there, those are going away.

Are we still planning on getting some of those, or is that something that's in the works?

Uh yes, we are still obtaining some of them while they are phasing out you know more quickly than originally anticipated.

Um at least on the uh cities capital projects, our solar projects, things that we're building, we fully qualify for all the things that we've gotten started.

Um, thanks to the climate protection fund, you know, we were planning on building a lot of those anyways, so this became a very uh fortuitous um opportunity for us when the IRA passed.

And so unfortunate that it's going away, but it does not um deter us whatsoever.

And even prior to the IRA, Excel was already having you know its large scale plans approved by the public utilities commission and wind and solar were batteries and battery storage were consistently the lowest cost generation coming onto the grid as we retired uh other fossil assets.

I appreciate that.

Um, and back to the PUC.

I know you said you greatly appreciate that they're regulated at the state.

I will say we can probably all attest to how hard it was to vote on that and the amount of pressure we get and the number of lobbyists and people in community that are paid by them that are hounding us on a daily basis.

And so when you talk about the PUC having three people who are not always in agreement, the amount of hounding that they get, it is concerning to me.

And I would like to see us take more of a role in getting involved there and advocating for our residents because it is a lot of pressure that we all got, and I'm sure it's a lot of pressure that they get.

Um we have a plan for undergrounding.

I think that's more of a question for Dottie.

Um, they oversee the undergrounding fund that's equivalent to one percent of um electric revenues.

It's something like eight million dollars per year.

Terry Goodwin's the franchise administrator over there, and then works with I I think various other affected stakeholders to identify which projects the city should direct for undergrounding, but some of that is also PUC directed just as a part of um Excel's you know, typical infrastructure planning efforts and safety improvements.

Uh, I don't know if you have anything else on undergrounding to I think you you summed it up well.

It's it's kind of a collaboration between the city and and Excel's own sort of internal design standards as they're pursuing either capacity, new capacity projects or redeveloping portions of the system for maintenance purposes.

Okay.

Um I love all the work that you all are doing.

It's amazing, but I don't think we need to get that credit elsewhere because um a lot of the work that Excel is doing, like every dollar they spend that gets approved, ends up getting paid for by our repair.

So I just wanted to pin that.

Um I did want to ask you mentioned a plan about how many substations do we need and where are we putting them?

Do you know the answer to that?

We are working on getting the final information, and there are some confidentiality requirements there.

So I think we'll just have to talk with our teams about how we can provide um those briefings and you know, ideally we want to bring as much public as we possibly can, but we do need to be cognizant of uh some of the critical infrastructure um information protections that uh we have to follow.

Okay, I appreciate that.

I can say in Excel's current distribution system plan, which is uh being litigated kind of as we speak, well, over the past couple months and for the next uh month or so uh that in the Denver metro planning region, which is not equivalent to our juris our Denver's jurisdictional boundary, but um gives you an idea of the growth.

There's currently 11 substations, and they're planning on building nine more in the next five years.

So um in Denver.

Correct.

And that's again, that's not specific, you know, there's additional areas outside of the Denver Metro Planning Division that are within the city's uh jurisdictional boundaries where there are is that there's additional development, but that's just contextualized for uh sort of within one planning division and and in Denver, the growth that's anticipated in the next five years alone.

I appreciate that.

And just to go back to the underrounding, the reason I brought it up was in the presentation it said it was talking about wildfire risk and 1.9 uh billion to mitigate that budget and how that affects Denver's energy costs and resiliency planning.

So um I just wanted to point that out.

Um I was curious about the 10 million for neighborhood scale electrification pilots, specifically in Ruby Hill, which is in District 7.

Can you tell me about that?

And you said PUC approved funds.

So the PUC approved funds from who for Excel to invest.

So this is uh ratepayers.

That'll charge rate.

Exactly.

So it comes from the ratepayers.

Yes.

Um so that uh there's technically three distinct projects uh within that bullet.

And apologies if if uh I think putting that together, it kind of got confused.

But so there's 10 million dollars that was approved under the clean heat plan that goes toward uh a neighborhood residential retrofit initiative, which uh attempts to uh or will attempt to electrify uh existing homes in a specific area.

It's uh Valverde Bay has tentatively been chosen uh as this is an Excel-led plan, and we are participating as uh sort of providing our guidance, uh, as are several other uh entities.

Uh all 10 million are not going to go specifically to the Denver project.

There's also a portion of the a small portion of that that is uh likely to go to a project in Aurora that is a market-based project.

The the project in in Valverde will likely be uh an equity uh sort of uh project in a disproportionately impacted community.

So what about Ruby Hill?

Ruby Hill is part of a thermal uh networks pilot project.

So there uh the proceeding to essentially analyze uh there were 20 some uh projects that Excel brought forward, ultimately two uh move forward to the next phase of consideration uh, which includes design and community engagement.

Uh we are you know in the process of Excel is still early on in sort of what that is gonna look like, but RubyHoe has been uh selected for its potential.

Uh it there's no dollars that have been allocated for anything other than uh a more detailed investigation of what the project could look like and then engaging with community as well to um uh ensure that there's uh enough interest to move forward, and then there will be another application that will uh seek uh approval to construct the the pilot.

Okay, I appreciate that.

And then my last question is just do we have an audit of our city-owned buildings and where they're at on your ratings of how energy efficient they are and how we're where they're out on getting electrified?

Yes, and we could schedule another briefing, bring in those members of our team that are very focused on our lead-by-example capital projects, you know, understanding where are we on our buildings, and we've got 156 or so municipal buildings that uh we need to make improvements to, both efficiency and electrification and coming up with a long-term strategy of how do we make sure that you know, as equipment reaches the end of its useful life, we're investing in the things that are going to be you know, again, sustainable for if it's a 50-year piece of equipment, we want it to be the right choice uh as we're going through and doing this.

I appreciate that.

And I have noticed even in the courts here, some people are roasting sometimes.

So we definitely want to make sure people have good working conditions as well.

That's all I have.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you.

Did anyone else want to get into the green queue?

Yes, okay.

Uh thank you, madam chair.

Um going back to uh councilman, some of how councilman Hines remarks, one of the most frequent calls I get from constituents is how unreliable Excel is.

Uh Dan, you were saying they're building nine more substations, and I want to make sure I understood.

Was that only in City and County or is that in their Denver Metro?

So sorry, the this is confusing.

This is based on Excel's own terminology.

Their uh Denver Metro Planning Division is uh smaller than the city's footprint.

So it uh so yes.

So it's basically how they divide up their distribution system, which is not based on jurisdictional boundaries.

Uh smaller than the city.

Smaller than the city of Denver, sir.

So the Denver Metro Division.

So Denver, the actual city and county of Denver has more than 11 substations.

Uh and it's kind of hard to pin down an exact number because substations that are located in edgewater and elsewhere serve portions of Denver.

So um Are any of them in Denver that they're gonna build?

Yeah.

Oh yes.

Yeah, so within that, sorry, let me clarify.

There are currently within this planning division, which is smaller than the footprint, there are 11 substations currently in operation.

They are planning in this distribution system plan to build nine more in the in that planning division.

So in this is around uh the downtown area and a little bit beyond.

Where are they?

Uh there is it like Sheridan to Downing, you know, 48th to Alameda.

But where is this?

In in terms of where will they be located, the new ones?

Where what is the Denver Metro?

Denver metro.

I'd have to I can send you uh I can send you a map with that detail.

Okay.

Because this is the reverse of any map.

Sorry, yes, it's it's sp 100% specific to Excel.

Yes.

Okay.

Uh on the uh uh the uh charts on uh slide six, uh thermal transportation electric, Denver core emissions over time, the uh thermal emissions stay constant.

But I thought I heard Johnny that we were basically talking about decommissioning natural gas.

How do how do the core emissions stay constant?

Yeah.

So this is based on existing policy and what has currently been approved by the public utilities commission and otherwise.

So clearly we have work to do.

You know, the intent that we have is obviously that also bends down towards zero, but the formal the state has passed laws requiring the PUC and Excel to formally establish uh these thermal uh reduction targets and to propose the infrastructure plans that would actually get us there.

They are not yet in place, they are not yet approved, and so that's why a lot of our attention is going towards how do we make sure that that can be done successfully?

How do we make sure that the technology we will work, and how do we demonstrate that you can actually decommission uh the system so that our outlooks will change?

Thank you.

And like Councilman Hines, I get my smart meter now.

I get emails from Excel periodically, and I just got one during this meeting.

Uh hi, Kevin J.

Tomorrow is an energy action day.

Reduce your footprint and make an impact.

They didn't tell me to turn it down my air conditioner because I'm not using it right now.

Uh, but it tells me that I've got like five badges already because of how well I've been doing.

Uh my goal is two percent reduction.

And this is the kind of thing that gives people pause about full electrification because they think about California and rolling blackouts and going like a day and a half without the full electrification.

No, so that's effectively the uh uh the book value of all of their assets that they're okay.

So that begs a question.

Uh when I go door to door to my constituents say the city wants you to and put in electrification, how will you pay for that?

Uh what do I tell them?

Uh, because I'm concerned that when I say that, and they look at emails like this and say, you know, tomorrow, you know, turn uh turn your air conditioner up.

Uh don't do your laundry until after 9 p.m.

now if you want to save money because you know our peak hours now go to 9 p.m.

Uh I feel for all the families with moms and dads and kids trying to get to bed and when are they gonna cook and when are they gonna uh I'm I'm just a little concerned that this is not a realistic plan given the fragile state of uh the grid.

All right, so I mean I I would say I think the grid can and and will be able to handle this transition and it's investing accordingly.

So I mean I I would say I think the grid can and and will be able to handle this transition and it's investing accordingly of we don't want to keep throwing money down that 15 billion dollar pit of our gas system when it's 20 below zero.

Right, but but you you're going to need to invest in the energy infrastructures that can keep you a comfortable temperature at the appropriate time of the year.

And so we want to channel our resources towards those that can do it most sustainably and preserve that uh you know livable climate for humanity, hopefully for you know, long after uh I'm gone.

Uh that that's a big part of what we're looking at is where do we direct our infrastructure dollars to maximize our success, and how do we shift the burden off of the shoulders of the individual?

I think a lot of pressure that individuals face of you should know your carbon footprint and what you need to do to solve this problem.

The problems were created by big institutions, not by you know these individuals who are just trying to keep the lights on, cook for their family, do their laundry, and do it at a time that you know makes sense.

I've got a three-year-old and a one-year-old, you know, we've got to cook dinner before bedtime at 7 p.m.

So we have an estimate then of the cost to because those are not just residences.

We have about 180,000 single and small multi-family homes that I know we serve for our solid waste program.

So I know that's about 180 uh households in single and small multifamily up to uh seven units.

And then beyond that, we have the large multi-family that maybe their HVAC systems or heating at least runs or their water heating runs on gas and on a lot of the buildings that we see in the tech center in downtown.

What is the cost?

I because I assume that 15 billion was the cost of doing conversion, but you're saying that's the value of the depreciated over 60 years.

The sunk value right now.

So, what's the cost of all the all the buildings in Council District 2 taking out all their gas and putting in electric?

And where do they get that that capacity to do that?

So we think it's so important to do things at time of replacement, where if you're gonna spend money anyways on a new furnace or a new stove or whatever that might be, you know, replacing it with the more sustainable thing when you're already going to have a cost and trying to make sure that that uh new cost is actually cheaper than what you're going to pay otherwise, is how ultimately we're going to be successful.

You know, depending on where you are in the country, you either do or don't have that cost parity.

We have some of the the cheapest uh fossil gas in the country.

New York Times a couple weeks ago actually put out a map showing, you know, hey, where where do you live?

You know, what what is your cost of electrification?

You know, places like the Northeast old uh buildings that are using fuel oil and old boilers and things like that.

It is cost effective two-day when you need to replace your home heating system uh to go with a heat pump.

You're gonna save money over time and you're probably gonna spend about the same as what you would have for that uh like for like replacement.

You said we're still working on that.

Just personal on a personal note, we're looking into launching a kitchen remodel.

And you know, don't jump out of your seat.

My wife wanted to convert from electric to gas because she just likes cooking with gas and boys had electric.

And we decided that we're gonna go with induction range, which is electric, but it's more expensive.

But gas was actually the least expensive alternative.

So that seems upside down.

Do you have any figures, a chart that you could send us that would demonstrate that this would be less expensive than if my gas furnace went out, it would be easier for me to put in a heat pump than just to replace my furnace.

We'll follow up with the phone.

This is gonna be a tough sell to people who are struggling right now, especially in older homes, to carry Sharon.

Would you like to uh with that?

Uh Sharon Jay managed to energize Denver policy.

Um usually with the heat pumps and the induction, even though the upfront cost is a little bit more, they run more efficiently, they use less electricity.

So if you look at the comparison of like the electricity you're gonna use versus the natural gas, the cost usually ends up being very comparable.

It's just the upfront cost is what you have some issues.

Which is sometimes the toughest nut to crack.

Of course, of course.

I know Excel Energy is looking at some different remates.

One of the things that I would love to do.

I mean their number before I call the appliance store.

Um I don't know if they're numbered, but um I know they're thinking about it.

Let me put it that way.

One of the things that um I just want to plug, like for and the energized Denver policy is that we're lowering the amount of energy being used on the grid, which you know reduces the load on the grid, which then enables some of these other things.

And so I think maybe an important point to take out of Johnny's presentation and all the conversations is that there are so many different things happening that we have to do to make the whole energy transition happen, and that we would love to engage with you to like support Energized Denver, support us in the PUC, work through the franchise agreement, do all of these different things because all of them are important.

Like if we don't get our energy efficiency in a really good place, then we don't have the issue to, you know, or be able to do some of the electrification we want to.

So we have to do it all.

Yeah, we certainly have read a lot enough about all with the Coca-Cola weaving and all that.

We've read a lot.

And with some projects in Southwest number.

Excel saying we don't have the capacity right now for this project.

That's gonna be tough.

Last question.

I was just gonna add something real quick.

Okay.

Uh last question.

Could you send us?

You don't have to answer it now, but uh by 2050, what is the uh million metrics, metric tons of emissions that we estimate will be eliminated versus today.

Could you provide that?

Absolutely.

Yeah.

Thank you.

That's it.

Okay.

Um, I just have a few very quick questions.

Um, you mentioned the $50 million asset portfolio growing, and I was curious as to how that was growing and who manages that asset.

Uh so that grows through state regulation and Excel filing plans uh at the PUC that essentially justify the need for uh those investments.

They all have to be reviewed for prudency and um and public necessity and and sort of serving the public interest.

Um that's sort of where it's a it's a really fine balance.

You know, load growth has been very um uh low for really decades uh up until recently, and with electrification initiatives, um it's really changed the dynamic, which is where we've run into some of the capacity constraints and the traditional planning frameworks uh were very reactive.

They were based on, you know, you get uh an interconnection request or an energization request from a new development, and Excel says, okay, we're gonna we realize we have this load growth, we're gonna you know file for a plan.

What they're having to do and what it just what utilities across the country are are starting to have to do where electrification uh and demand growth because of electrification is growing, is to be much more proactive in those investments.

And that is where this current distribution system plan, uh which is heavily influenced by state legislation uh that was passed this this past session, uh, requires proactive investment to uh really get ahead of those capacity constraints.

So we view this as uh, and I think Excel in many ways views those capacity constraints as a near-term challenge to overcome uh that were exacerbated by some supply chain issues uh as well.

Um and with this new planning framework that is much more proactive.

We anticipate that those uh constraints will be minimized and and eliminated in many ways.

Um but to your point, the the full portfolio is litigated at the PUC.

Uh every dollar uh that Excel spends and recovers from ratepayers uh is scrutinized through those processes and um and ultimately uh is approved by the commission.

And one clarification were were you referring to slide nine, the 50 million asset portfolio.

Yeah.

Oh sorry.

Yeah.

But that was a there's a phenomenal context of the 50 billion dollar portfolio that Excel is planning and how we make sure that uh those are prudent investments.

Um the 50 million uh so far of lead-by-example projects that includes uh solar arrays that uh CASER has built, um uh EV charging infrastructure and uh facility electrification efforts, uh similar to what you know the airport was talking through.

We're we're really looking for ways to do this cost effectively in ways that actually will return revenue back to the city, help to you know save us money versus what we would have paid Excel otherwise.

And in the case of the community solar arrays that we build, we actually donate uh nearly all of the bill credits to low-income households in the community that we identify in partnership with Denver Public Schools and Energy Outreach Colorado.

Okay, two questions, two more questions.

Does the district attorney attend the PUC meetings, or do you have someone else from CASDA that attends those meetings?

Me and my my colleagues uh it's uh are along with uh we work with um attorneys at the city attorney's office.

Okay, and then can you give me an example of a non-regulated utility service?

The chilled water service here in Denver.

The downtown district chilled water service is not regulated by the PUC.

Great, that's it.

Thank you.

And with that, we are adjourned.

We have four items on consent, no one pulled them off, and now we're adjourned to it.