Xcel Energy’s highly anticipated Mountain Energy Project is on its way to becoming a reality for customers in the Eastern Mountain Gas System, including Summit County residents. 

Breckenridge Town Council fielded an update at its Tuesday, Nov. 25 meeting from town sustainability manager Jessie Burley, who has been at the forefront Summit communities’ advocacy efforts to protect locals’ interests during the project’s review process. 

Burley said the Colorado Public Utilities Commission delivered an oral decision on the project at a Nov. 19 meeting approving a settlement between Summit County communities, other entities and Xcel Energy. She said there has not yet been a written decision released. 

Burley’s update to council follows Summit County communities’ formal intervention with the Mountain Energy Project review at the Colorado Public Utilities Commission. Under the name Mountain Community Coalition, Summit County communities participated in the review and brought concerns mostly over energy efficiency, decarbonization measures and cost recovery concerns.

On July 29, Mountain Community Coalition and other intervening groups reached a settlement with Xcel Energy. Notably, intervenors were able to ensure Eastern Mountain Gas System customers didn’t solely shoulder the cost Mountain Energy Project. Some preliminary estimates put the project at $155 million. Some community members pushed against this settlement, raising concerns about the continued use of natural gas in the plan.

Xcel Energy advertises the Mountain Energy Project as its largest-ever non-pipeline alternative portfolio. In addition to moving Xcel closer to its goal of becoming a net-zero energy provider by 2050, the project looks to address gas constraints in the Eastern Mountain Gas System.

Burley said “2026 will be the year of electrification” for Breckenridge and she said the town plans to embark on outreach efforts to educate the community about the town’s goal of reducing carbon emissions 50% community-wide by 2030. She said Xcel will have some “very generous incentives” to encourage electrification for customers. She said more details will start to be released in December. 

Council member Jay Beckerman wondered about the capacity for electrification in the region. Burley said the electric grid state-wide is around 52% renewable.

“The overall electric grid is getting greener pretty quickly, and the cost of renewables is actually the cheapest source of fuel on the globe now,” she said, “so the economics are there to move in that direction.”

She said it’s a myth that there is a capacity issue with the electric grid. She said Xcel Energy figured out what electrifying the Eastern Mountain Gas System would look like as a part of the project proposal. She said they had to vet what existing infrastructure would need to be upgraded and what new infrastructure might need to be introduced. Xcel Energy’s proposal also called for “stop-gap” solutions as it works towards non-pipeline alternatives, including a natural gas tank in Breckenridge and a compressed natural gas tank in Keystone.

“There’s still capacity on the system to incrementally bite off these non-pipeline alternatives in the short to medium term,” she said. 

Burley said there will come a time where it will be riskier to remain on the gas system as opposed to going electric.

“Assets will be stranded sooner and less customers will be on the gas system, so those people will have to pay a lot more to support the gas system moving forward,” she said. 

Burley said Xcel Energy notified Breckenridge of gas supply constraints around five years ago, and she explained to the council how gas constraints work. She said gas constraints are based off of the maximum amount of gas demand on the coldest day in the last 30 or so years. She said the current threshold is negative 39 degrees, which she said the town hasn’t experienced in decades.