Why do we have Green Energy?

Utilities is a member owner of Platte River Power Authority, a joint-action agency that supplies nearly all of the electricity to Fort Collins customers. Platte River supplements its own resources with purchases from the regional electric grid. In addition, locally-generated solar electricity also supplies customers with a portion of their use.

Key principles regarding the attribution of non-fossil resources in Fort Collins include:

Utilities 100% Renewable Electricity Resolution (2018-094) defined renewable electricity to include non-fossil sources, including wind, solar, hydroelectricity, geothermal and other means that may become available that do not add greenhouse gases to the atmosphere.

Utilities self-certifies compliance with the Colorado Renewable Energy Standard and has exceeded the minimum requirement since the standard was created.

Renewable resources that are included in the voluntary Green Energy Program are dedicated to the group of customer-subscribers and do not accrue to non-participating customers.

Electric customers can attribute the fraction of renewable electricity in the general resource mix for their facility according to their purchases of electricity from Utilities.

What is the price comparison between Green Energy and the normal resource mix over the years?

The residential rates are designed to cover the cost of service for the residential class of customers. The Green Energy Program price is a premium on top of the residential rate and has been set at the cost of a specific renewable energy tariff from Platte River. View the table below to see how the rates have changed since 2010. This last value may be most relevant, as we anticipate the percentage premium for renewable electricity to generally decrease over time.