DENVER RTD AWAITS LOWER ELECTRIC RATES FOR MALL BUSES
New Xcel fee structure coming for commercial electric vehicles
A new Xcel fee structure should become final Tuesday.
Cost savings are coming to Colorado’s commercial operators of electric vehicles — starting with the Regional Transportation District’s 36 battery-operated 16th Street Mall shuttle buses.
This week, a new rate structure from Xcel Energy for commercial electric vehicles and electric fleets is expected to be finalized that will dramatically reduce demand charges that have been blamed for making it 60% more expensive for RTD to operate its electric mall buses than its diesel-powered coaches.
Carly Macias, senior transportation planner for RTD, said she expects the change to lower the cost of operating a MallRide shuttle bus from 73 cents per mile to around 50 cents a mile — close to the 46 cents a mile it takes to fuel a 40-foot RTD diesel transit coach.
“We’re going to pay a lot less in demand charges,” she said.
A demand charge is a price tier that electric utilities typically add to commercial and industrial customers’ bills to recover the utility’s capital costs of building a system that can provide enough power to meet peak demand whenever needed.
A Colorado Public Utilities Commission judge recently approved a settlement agreement with Xcel to adjust its rate structure for commercial electric vehicles in the state. As long as no one objects to the agreement by the close of business Monday, the new rate becomes final Tuesday.
Xcel then has 60 days to put it into effect.
Will Toor, executive director of the Colorado Energy Office, called the impending change a “win-win.”
“This change creates a rate structure that works for the grid and works for the fleet,” he said. “With the right rate structure, it allows big cost savings for fleets and it allows a bigger transition
to electric vehicles.”
The Colorado Electric Vehicle Plan, which launched under former Gov. John Hickenlooper, has a stated goal of nearly 1 million electric vehicles on Colorado’s roads by 2030, which could reduce smog-forming pollutants by several hundred tons and greenhouse gases by up to 3 million tons.
In January, Gov. Jared Polis issued an executive order that directed the state to create a multiagency team to develop the infrastructure needed to support more electric vehicles.
RTD, which is Xcel’s biggest electric vehicle fleet customer in Colorado, will have a role to play in the new rate structure.
“We expect we’ll change our behavior based on this,” Macias said.
That includes RTD charging its buses between 9 p.m. and noon the next day, when power prices are lower. That avoids the “critical peaks” — when power prices spike during heavier use parts of the day, said Kevin Schwain, electric vehicle program lead for Xcel.
“We are agreeing to build and provide a new rate for a unique customer type on our system that uses electricity to charge electric cars, buses and trucks,” he said. “It is our hope that by doing so, we can assist in mitigating barriers to the adoption of electric vehicles for our customers who have indicated their interest in this space.”
RTD will not be the only entity to benefit, said PUC spokeswoman Rebecca Quintana.
“Any large retail building, office building, EV charging company serving public charging spaces, or apartment/condo building could also receive service under this rate for EV charging,” she said.
The rate will not be available to residential customers as they are not generally hit with demand charges when they power up their batteries at home.
RTD’s Macias hopes the new rate structure, which should go into effect in January, will allow the agency to expand its electric bus fleet beyond the 16th Street Mall. RTD is already planning to put 17 more electric buses out on the road starting in 2022 or 2023, though it hasn’t determined where yet.
“We’re looking at the long-term viability of this technology, so this is really the testing ground,” she said.