Building the electricity system of the future: fort collins & fortZed

This report summarizes a two-day charrette held in November 2012 to address challenges in planning, investment, and execution of energy efficiency and renewable energy for Fort Collins Utilities and the FortZED net zero energy district project.

• Fort Collins Utilities is a municipal utility serving 146,672 people across 54 square miles. As of 2012, its power generation mix consisted of 69% from two coal plants, 26% from regional hydro-power, and 3% from other renewables.
• The city established community-wide energy goals in 2009, which include reducing greenhouse gases by 20% below 2005 levels by 2020 and 80% by 2050, achieving annual energy efficiency savings of at least 1.5% of annual energy use, and meeting 10% of energy demand with renewables by 2020.
• FortZED is a collaborative effort to transform the main campus of Colorado State University and the downtown area of Fort Collins into a net zero energy district. The project area covers two square miles and represents approximately 10–15% of the utility's distribution system, with a peak electricity demand of 45 MW.
• In 2011, Fort Collins Utilities achieved energy efficiency savings of 1.4% of annual retail electric sales, falling slightly short of its 1.5% target. However, program savings grew at an average rate of 10% over the preceding six years.
• The charrette participants proposed a 'FortZED tariff' to align utility and customer interests. This proposed rate structure would value distributed resources to ensure distribution cost recovery for zero net energy customers, incentivize grid services, and provide bundled efficiency and solar services via preferred providers.
• To accelerate the adoption of clean energy, the charrette identified four primary strategies: targeting sales and marketing using utility data and viral tools, optimizing structured finance to access cheap capital, properly valuing distributed resources to provide correct investment signals, and executing 'low-hanging fruit' such as extending on-bill financing terms.
• The charrette suggested that Fort Collins could feasibly accelerate its clean energy timeline to meet its vision by 2020. Proposed new aspirations include becoming a renowned test-bed for new technologies and creating clean technology jobs.

APA

RMI (2013). Building the electricity system of the future: fort collins & fortZed. https://rmi.org/app/uploads/2017/05/RMI_Document_Repository_Public-Reprts_2013-07_FCFZFinalReport.pdf

Chicago

RMI. Building the electricity system of the future: fort collins & fortZed. 2013. https://rmi.org/app/uploads/2017/05/RMI_Document_Repository_Public-Reprts_2013-07_FCFZFinalReport.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=RMI |title=Building the electricity system of the future: fort collins & fortZed |date=May 2013 |url=https://rmi.org/app/uploads/2017/05/RMI_Document_Repository_Public-Reprts_2013-07_FCFZFinalReport.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{rmi2013building, author = {{RMI}}, title = {{Building the electricity system of the future: fort collins \& fortZed}}, institution = {RMI}, year = {2013}, month = may, url = {https://rmi.org/app/uploads/2017/05/RMI_Document_Repository_Public-Reprts_2013-07_FCFZFinalReport.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }