Xcel Energy 2015 Annual Report Download - page 6

6 XCEL ENERGY | Annual Report 2015
BRECKENRIDGE BREWERY: A PERFECT
BATCH OF ENERGY-EFFICIENT SOLUTIONS
When Breckenridge Brewery opened in 1990, it was the third
craft brewery in Colorado. Twenty ve years later, it has grown to
produce more than 70,000 barrels of beer annually, distributed in 35
states. When its growth plans called for a new brewery to be built in
Littleton, Colo., the leadership team partnered with our Energy Design
Assistance (EDA) program to design a rst class, energy-efcient
facility.
During the design and construction phase, Xcel Energy collaborated
with the brewery team, contractors and architects to develop and
incent efciency strategies ranging from choosing energy-efcient
building materials, sensors and lighting xtures throughout the facility
to recapturing heat from the brewing process. This tailored solution
encompassed both the building envelope and manufacturing process
to ensure energy efciency was achieved every step of the way.
The Breckenridge Brewery leadership team saw the value of
these plans and invested in these solutions at the new facility that
opened last summer. Those investments more than paid off. After
an independent consultant veried the energy savings, Xcel Energy
delivered an incentive check for $59,470. Even more importantly, the
brewery will save nearly $51,000 in energy costs annually, recapturing
its up-front investment in ve years and freeing valuable capital to
reinvest in the business.
“Who doesn’t like to get a $60,000 rebate check?” Breckenridge
Brewery President Todd Usry asked. “Xcel Energy and the third party
consultant were great to work with from the pre-construction phase
all the way through.”
In 2015, the EDA program rewarded Colorado and Minnesota
customers with more than $11.2 million in rebates for using energy-
efcient design in 136 buildings.
successful launch of a new general ledger at the close of
2015. This and additional system upgrades scheduled for
the next two years are key tools that will lead to increased
productivity and streamlined operations.
Employee and public safety is an important part of The
Right Mix needed to achieve operational excellence. It is
an Xcel Energy priority that every employee goes home
safe each night. I am pleased that we achieved the eighth
consecutive year of improved employee safety results, with
a reduction in both injury count and severity. According to
our annual engagement survey, 94 percent of our employees
indicate that their work area is a safe place and 91 percent
indicate that safety rules are carefully observed, even if it
means that work is slowed down.
We continue to cultivate a culture of safety to protect the
public—a responsibility we take very seriously. We have
replaced all known cast iron natural gas distribution lines,
initiated a project to move meters to the outside of older
homes and installed additional safety measures to better
protect above-ground natural gas equipment from potential
damage by vehicles.
Our electrical system delivers reliable service more than
99 percent of the time on average, and prompt service
restoration is a hallmark of our business. When severe storms
in Texas and New Mexico disrupted power in December, our
dedicated employees once again delivered, safely restoring
power to 84 percent of customers within 12 hours and
98 percent of customers within 24 hours. We also received
the Edison Electric Institute’s Emergency Response Recovery
Award for our work during a July storm in Minnesota
that impacted 250,000 customers. We continue to make
improvements in our customer communication, allowing
customers to plan accordingly during service outages.
We also prepare for threats that we can’t see. Last fall,
more than 150 employees participated in the GridEx III, a
two-day national drill coordinated by the North American
Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC), to test the industry’s
preparedness for a national physical and cyber attack on the
electric grid. This exercise provided a meaningful opportunity
to evaluate our responsiveness and communications plans,
and to strengthen our connection to government response
agencies. We are investing in both assets and talent to make
the energy grid even more robust, resilient and secure.
Expand customer options and solutions
Our customers want more ways to save energy and money, to
connect with us in the ways convenient to them and exercise