Rebates and funding for Building Performance Colorado compliance

The expensive step in Building Performance Colorado compliance is not the annual report. It is the ASHRAE Level 2 study that tells you how far the building is from its 2030 target, what closes the gap, and what it costs, and which most of the relief options require as supporting documentation. Depending on where the building takes its electricity, that study may be largely or entirely paid for.

Efficiency Works: Fort Collins, Loveland, Longmont, Estes Park

Efficiency Works is run by Platte River Power Authority with the four member utilities: Fort Collins Utilities, Loveland Water and Power, Longmont Power & Communications, and Estes Park Power and Communications. For buildings that take commercial electric service from one of them and are subject to the state standard, the program offers a BPS compliance study incentive of up to $15,000, plus two stackable bonuses, a Building Performance Standards bonus and an electrification study focus bonus, worth up to $10,000 together. The combination can cover up to 100% of the study cost.

The mechanics matter. A registered Efficiency Works service provider contracts for the study and files the preapproval application before any work begins. Funding is first come, first served within each calendar year. The program also rebates most of the electricity-saving upgrades the study identifies, so the same relationship carries through to the improvements.

Statewide: the Building Decarbonization Enterprise

Every covered building pays a $400 Building Decarbonization Enterprise fee with its November 1 report. That money funds the enterprise, which has approved initial offerings that include audit funding and rebates. As of this writing the amounts are not published. When you plan an audit, ask what is open; the Colorado Energy Office is the source.

Denver and Xcel territory

Buildings served by Xcel Energy, which includes Denver, do not have access to Efficiency Works. Xcel runs its own commercial efficiency programs, and Energize Denver has its own resources for covered buildings. We have not verified current amounts for either and do not list figures we cannot source. A consultant who works in that territory will know what is open this year.

What this means in practice

If your building is in one of the four Efficiency Works cities, the order of operations is: confirm coverage, get preapproval filed, do the study, then decide on the 2019 baseline election and any adjustment requests with the study in hand. If you are anywhere else, the study is still the right first step and the state enterprise funding is worth asking about, but budget for it. Every building page on this site shows the funding that applies to that building's city.