John Scarffe, Nederland. Members of the Nederland Sustainability Advisory Board (SAB) presented two contracts to the Nederland Board of Trustees that move the Town closer to its renewable energy goals during a regular meeting at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, May 14, 2018, in the Nederland Community Center. At its July 18 meeting, the Board passed a resolution transitioning the Town’s electricity supply to 100 percent renewable energy sources by 2032, and that goal was later moved to 2020.

SAB Chair Melody Baumhover told the Board that Xcel approached SAB with a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU). They did a lot of communicating with Xcel staff, explaining what sustainability means to Nederland.

Xcel has approached a small number of towns to start this process to reach out to a different franchise agreement, and they will be adding renewables, Baumhover said. “There is nothing binding. Anything Xcel works on we don’t have to do and vice versa.”

The Board was asked to sign an MOU with Xcel, which was referred to the SAB to look over, make changes and finalize. The SAB worked long and hard with Xcel staff.

Though the SAB does still have more suggestions for change, they feel the time to move forward with more edits is not worth the changes it may cause. For example, they would prefer all instances of “clean energy” be changed to “renewable energy.” They feel the draft will suffice as is and should be signed.

The SAB’s main goals for this MOU are to ensure the Town receives benefits from this agreement and the Nederland vision for sustainability and Envision Ned 2020 are well-represented, Nederland has the ability to work with renewable energy contractors other than Xcel, and to ensure Nederland maintains autonomy over the regulatory changes it supports and doesn’t support.

Some of the fundamental changes to the MOU include expanding the Nederland Vision section to include adherence to Envision 2020 and other Town policies as well as to expand the first section regarding Nederland’s priority to serve the community and not give bias to any specific contractor.

Language was altered to ensure Nederland will only support policies and changes to the PUC and other regulations that Xcel supports if we deem them beneficial. “We would like to work with regulations when necessary to open up Nederland’s options, including changing the conversation about cost-shifting to allow low-income projects, but we foresee not supporting all measures that Xcel will support,” states the background information.

Letter E was altered to acknowledge the government-controlled monopoly status of the energy system in Colorado and to acknowledge that Xcel has an exclusive certificate to provide Nederland’s energy. Mayor Kristopher Larsen said this is a collaborative approach to reach our renewable goals and theirs.

Baumhover said: “This is the first one of its kind in Colorado as far as I know. A couple of communities signed before we did but we spent a lot more time working on this.”

Ways of defining clean energy include clean coal instead of renewable. Signing this will be more of an advantage than picking through the details, but you can edit it, Baumhover said.

Larsen said legal has signed off, and Trustee Alan Apt said the Town wants to make sure the cost of this is not greater than what we have been paying. The main stipulation is we want this at the same cost or lower.

Xcel Area Manager Preston Gibson, sitting in for Craig Eicher, said he appreciates greatly the stamp of approval from the SAB and has worked with them for a-year-and-a-half. Xcel did a survey of towns in the area to find out what they can we do beyond just trying to keep the lights on.

“In working with our cities, that is how this plan has developed. We have seven cities or towns we are doing the pilot on,” Gibson said.

“We think we are going to expand the program, but this is the very beginning. It’s an MOU that is a handshake that this is where we think we’re going and where you’re going.

“We hope to have 50 percent renewable in the future. We’re trying to help you achieve your goals,” Gibson said.

Larsen thanked Xcel for coming up here and working on this and SAB. The Board approved the contract.

Magnolia area resident Eyrca Thorley introduced a contract with Oak Leaf Energy regarding a large purchase of an energy package. Nine months ago, she came before the Board with a resolution for renewable energy.

“We have worked our butts off and have exciting possibilities for Nederland,” she said. The community solar garden was the first idea, but nothing was available.

“Fast forward to a few weeks ago, in a conversation with Boulder County, and they started talking about a solar garden,” Thorley said. They were introduced to Oak Leaf, and then the conversation went quickly this year.

Boulder County and Poudre Valley are in contract with them, but it is the best option for reaching the goal by 2020, Thorely said. The Town needs 950,000 hours.

The SAB motioned to recommend the Town sign up their municipal power, including all C class facilities, to purchase 100 to 120 percent of municipal power use for the next 20 years with Oak Leaf Energy under the Solar Community Garden program. This option means not purchasing Renewable Connect Solar Power through Xcel with our C Class facilities.

The Oak Leaf Contract opportunity allows the Town to purchase 100 percent of Nederland’s municipality electricity energy use through a large solar garden, according to background. The Town has a 97.9 percent chance that it will save money on electricity bills over the 20-year contract, based on potential fluctuations in bill credits from Xcel over this time period.

Oak Leaf is an energy development firm that works all over the country, with their primary headquarters based in Denver. Boulder County is the largest subscriber to both of the Solar Gardens that Nederland would be purchasing power from. Oak Leaf received just over half of the 60 Megawatts of Solar Garden Projects awarded by Xcel in 2016.

The Oak Leaf project would allow C class facilities a higher credit on electric bills, therefore allowing for more savings over time. The Renewable Connect program is only open to these facilities in the first wave and comes at an unknown premium and credit balance after the first year of no added cost.

“The SAB believes the better option fiscally is Oak Leaf, and that option reaches our 100 percent goal with more reliable and positive outcomes than the Renewable Connect option,” states background.

According to John Hereford with Oak Leaf, a 2.1 percent chance exists that the bills would not cost less. “We can’t predict the future and don’t know what energy is going to cost in 20 years.”

The contract is for 20 years. “Once they are able to check energy use goals, Xcel will be a good option for Nederland, and many residents signed up for a wind energy program.

Larsen said that hopefully, the Town would receive $2,700 savings this year and it would increase every year. Thorley said that is based on 3.1 percent bill credit on average.

After concerns expressed by Trustee Dallas Masters, Hereford said that the customer relationship with the utility will go on but will have added information in the corner that reflects savings.

“We feed into Xcel, so you are buying a share of the solar garden. We have three gardens in Weld County and would allocate Nederland into one of those gardens and would have a 25 percent share,” Hereford said. “Our rate goes up 1.35 percent and we are projecting Xcel would grow at a higher rate.

You only pay Oak Leaf after receiving a bill credit, so you are insulated from having to pay when the Town has not received a credit. You would be a subscriber to a certain number of kilowatt hours, he said.

“The only way you can satisfy Xcel’s crazy system is that our production will go down every year.” Larsen said, the Town would be subscribing to $80,000 this year and it will go down every year.

Ryan Mathley from Xcel in Denver said: ‘We support the Oak Leaf program. It will credit in the model is a 2017 and 2018 bill credit has gone down a bit. We have been offering programs since 2012.”

The solar gardens will connect in July or August and should be producing power in October. The Board approved the contract.

(Originally published in the May 24, 2018, print edition of The Mountain-Ear.)