Boulder Marijuana Cultivation Facilities Energy Requirements

Register your licensed marijuana cultivation facility in ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager
For your City of Boulder marijuana cultivation license or license renewal, you must report your facility's energy use through ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager (ESPM). The city has step-by-step how-to guide for medical and recreational marijuana business owners to report your energy use in Portfolio Manager.

If your cultivation facility has its own electric meter(s) and you pay your own electricity bill through Xcel Energy, you can access a service that Xcel offers to upload energy use data and automatically upload energy use into your ESPM account. For compliance with energy reporting, your facility's energy use must be shared with the city through ESPM. However, you only need to "share" your information through ESPM to the city once.

Request Xcel to “push” your energy use into your ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager account through its Energy Benchmarking portal. If you have questions, please contact Xcel’s Business Solutions Center:  1-800-481-4700  (available - Monday - Friday 8 a.m - 5 p.m.)

Transfer an existing ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager account to a new owner
If you are selling your City of Boulder marijuana license and you have an existing ESPM account for this facility, it's your responsibility to transfer this existing account to the new owner. Here are the  instructions on how to transfer the ESPM account to someone new. 

Need Help?

If you are requesting a new license and need assistance setting up an ESPM account to report your facility's energy use data, contact a Partners for a Clean Environment (PACE) business sustainability advisor at 303-441-1300 or [email protected] Another service is the city's ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager Help desk at 844-811-8785 or email them at [email protected]

Each marijuana cultivation facility must have one Electricity Offset Selection Form confirming its offset selection to achieve compliance on an annual basis. Only if you are changing your offset selection will you need to resubmit a new form. If you submitted a form identifying a combination of two offset options, the city needs proof of on-site solar or a subscription of a solar garden kWh generation.

If anyone needs assistance with ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager (ESPM), the city has hired a consultant group to provide a live helpdesk to support Boulder businesses or property owners with the online tool. 

Please reference the chart below for data submission deadlines and invoicing schedule.

Offset Cost Calculations: Your offset cost will be calculated by adding six months of electricity consumption from your ESPM account and multiplying that number by the kilo-watt hour (kWh) cost, per facility. The offset price is $0.0207 per kWh.

Offset Billing Dates:  Each licensed cultivation facility that opts into the Energy Impact Offset Fund will receive an invoice for their offset cost twice a year. 

Payment information:

• PLEASE NOTE: Include the bottom portion of your invoice with payment.
• Make checks out to: City of Boulder EIOF
• Mail check/cashier’s check to: City of Boulder Attn: Accounts Receivable EIOF, P.O. Box 791, Boulder, CO 80306-0791
• Drop off check in person (no cash payment will be accepted):
  City of Boulder Brenton Building-1st floor, 1136 Alpine Ave, Boulder, CO 80304
  • This building is part of the old Broadway Boulder Hospital site. Off Broadway, turn on North Street, then take the second driveway on the right side of street to find ample, free customer parking in front of our new location, the Brenton Building

Invoice and Submission Deadline Schedule:

When will I have to pay my facility’s offsets?

The city administers the Energy Impact Offset Fund accounts payable and receivable processes. The city will issue EIOF invoices at the end of May for the second half of the previous year and November for the first half of the current year. Issued offset invoices have a 30 day payment term, unless you make arrangements with the city to be put on a payment plan. 

I'm an existing cultivation facility and I would like to sell or transfer or surrender my City of Boulder cultivation license. What do I need to do?

For these requirements, contact Elizabeth Vasatka at [email protected] or 303-441-1964 to arrange final payments of offset obligation.

If you are selling or transferring your license, you will also need to transfer your ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager account to the new owner so they have historical electricity data for your facility. Instructions on transferring your account is under the "Report your facility's electricity use" tab.