Denver Water Launches 'Precedent-Setting Partnership' With Xcel Energy

Denver Water and Xcel Energy have teamed up with NAIOP Colorado, the Commercial Real Estate Development Association, in pursuit of a common goal: to make office buildings, warehouses and other commercial real estate in the Denver-metro area more energy and water-efficient. This innovative new partnership between three of Colorado's leading organizations serves as an example of how water and energy utilities can team up and leverage their resources for effective water and energy conservation.

The new initiative called, ResourceSmart Colorado, will educate commercial customers about the rebates and incentives available for water and energy efficiency improvements. As a press release from Denver Water explains:

“By bringing together two of the region’s largest utilities with NAIOP Colorado, ResourceSmart Colorado has the potential to create unprecedented change in promoting greener, more environmentally friendly practices in Colorado’s commercial buildings,” said Kathie Barstnar, executive director of NAIOP Colorado. “The program will give the key decision-makers of the commercial real estate industry the tools they need to implement the best, most cost-effective conservation programs and cutting-edge green building practices. It’s a win-win for all involved.”
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Both Xcel Energy and Denver Water have made commercial-sector conservation a priority and offer a variety of related programs and incentives, including audits and financial incentives for customers who switch to more efficient technologies. While these programs have been successful, the challenge has been making sure that the right people in the commercial real estate sector know about them. That is where NAIOP Colorado, the Commercial Real Estate Development Association, came in.

NAIOP’s Colorado chapter is one of the largest and most active chapters in the country, with nearly 800 members representing the owners and key decision-makers in the region’s commercial real estate industry. After some initial discussions with Denver Water and Xcel Energy, it became readily apparent that by working together, these three entities could make significant strides in saving water and energy while also helping local businesses to lower their costs and improve their bottom line.

Why is this type of partnership important? Most of us could list dozens of reasons for this kind of partnership, but here's some statistics provided by NAIOP Colorado to help make the case:

The United States commercial real estate sector is a major consumer of energy and water resources:

• The commercial sector uses an estimated 10 billion gallons of water each day in the United States and has the potential for enormous water conservation opportunities, from fixture replacements to food service appliances to efficient cooling systems.

• Denver Water’s commercial customers use more than 14.7 billion gallons of water each year, enough water to pour one foot of water onto 45,000 football fields.

• Commercial buildings consume 36 percent of all the electricity produced in the country and account for 18 percent of total U.S. energy consumption.

• The carbon dioxide emissions created by U.S. commercial buildings alone are roughly equivalent to all the carbon dioxide emitted by Australia, New Zealand and South Korea combined.

In this day of climate change and increasingly scarce supplies of water and other natural resources, it is more important than ever that office buildings, warehouses and other commercial real estate are as efficient as they can be when it comes to electricity and water consumption. Furthermore, during these tough economic times, businesses need to find ways to lower costs and improve their bottom line.

Here's a list of some incentives being promoted, followed by the strategies the partnership will use to get these incentives into the right hands:

Excel Energy

• The conservation rebates and incentives offered by Xcel Energy have saved Colorado businesses nearly $25 million a year in energy costs. For example, Xcel Energy’s Lighting Efficiency and Motor Efficiency rebate programs helped customers save more than 90 GWh of electricity in 2008 alone, equivalent to the amount of power used by 12,000 homes in Colorado each year.

• Beginning in 2009, the potential to save money is even greater because Xcel Energy has more than doubled the number of energy efficiency rebate programs, significantly raised the rebate amounts and expanded the list of equipment and processes that qualify for rebates.

Denver Water

• Denver Water pays commercial buildings up to $40,000 for water saved through increased efficiency.

• It offers large rebates for cooling tower equipment, which typically accounts for about 25% of an office building’s water consumption. It also offers rebates for installing water efficient toilets and urinals because water use in restrooms consumes another 25% of water consumption within an office building.

Through ResourceSmart Colorado, the Colorado chapter of NAIOP will work with both utilities to promote the need to conserve energy and water and to make its members aware of the programs and incentives that are available. This will be achieved through a variety of forums, events, programs and communication tools. As a part of the program’s launch, NAIOP Colorado plans to:

• Launch a new Web site devoted specifically to water and energy conservation, providing tips, conservation incentives and more;

• Host a breakfast meeting on Oct. 13 for NAIOP Colorado members to learn about the programs and incentives each utility offers;

• Act as a facilitator in bringing individual commercial real estate companies together with Xcel Energy and Denver Water for one-on-one consultations; and

• Identify additional opportunities to educate NAIOP Colorado members of the many conservation programs that Denver Water and Xcel Energy offer.

Additional initiatives in conjunction with ResourceSmart Colorado will be announced in the coming months. For more information about the program, or to schedule an interview with a representative from NAIOP Colorado, Denver Water or Xcel Energy, contact Megan Lane from GBSM at (303) 825-6100, Stacy Chesney from Denver Water at (720) 232-7214, Mark Stutz from Xcel Energy at (303) 294-2300 or Kathie Barstnar from NAIOP Colorado at (303) 782-0155.

While the partnership between Denver Water and Xcel Energy is indeed exciting, it looks like the utilities are more or less repackaging their existing conservation programs and using NAIOP to promote them and get them in the hands of commercial customers. This is a great move toward integrating water and energy policies and programs but I can't help but wonder how much more effective this initiative might be if the utilities tried targeting specific processes or fixtures that are both particularly water- and energy-intensive, perhaps by offering extra incentives or rebates for specified actions. This may already be taking place, but without the website up I was unable to track down much information on the program's details. Another potential strategy could be to use messages on the website and in their informational sessions that illustrate the connection between water and energy and the concept that saving one means you are saving the other.

Irregardless of their approach, Denver water and Xcel Energy both have a huge customer base, which means that we can expect these efforts to yield significant savings even if they only reach a fraction of their customers. Denver Water serves more than 1.3 million customers in the Denver metro area. Its customers use more than 225,000 acre feet of water each year, 20 percent of which is used by the commercial sector. Meanwhile, Xcel Energy is Colorado’s largest electricity and natural gas utility, serving more than 1.6 million customers. Its business customers in Colorado consume more than 19 billion kilowatt hours of electricity and 414 million therms of natural gas each year. Teamed up with NAIOP Colorado, which has 850 members representing the owners and key decision-makers of the region’s commercial real estate industry, this program certainly seems promising and could serve as a model for similar partnerships across the country.