Energy Impact Offset Fund

After you’ve submitted your license application to the City’s Licensing Team, you are required to make an Energy Star Portfolio Manager (ESPM) account.

• Steps:
  • Go to www.energystar.gov/buildings, click “Create account,” and provide the required information.
  • In the “Do you want your Account Name (and username) to be searchable by other Portfolio Manager users?” select “yes”.
  • In the “Primary Business of your Organization” select “Other” and type in “Agriculture”.
  • Select “conventional units” when completing the sign-up.
  • You do not need to “add a property” after you create your account. The property will be transferred to you (if a previous cultivator was utilizing the same cultivation address as you).
  • Keep a record of your username and password.

The city has a list of approved options to comply with this ordinance. Complete this electricity offset selection form, confirming how you will comply. It will be submitted to the EIOF staff.

Submittal of the form informs CID staff that you are a new owner on record, and you’ve selected how you will be compliant with the offset requirement. Whether you are paying into the city’s EIOF or are subscribed to another offset program, you are responsible for data entry of monthly kWh use in ESPM. This monthly kWh use is how the city calculates your offset fee on a bi-annual basis.

The offset fee obligation is calculated in arrears. A facility must use the electricity, track it, input it into ESPM monthly, and then the city will access that information from the database and calculate the fee twice per year, in June and December. The CID issues offset invoices in January each year for the previous year’s offsets. If the license was transferred, the previous owner pays the offset obligations through the date they left the premises. You will pay offsets starting from the date you first occupy the facility onward.

City Council originally adopted a higher fee that has since been reduced to $0.0207 per kWh. As the EIOF revenue is used to fund renewable energy projects, the fee will continue to be reduced. Electricity used in January 2022 forward will be further reduced to $0.0185 per kWh. The goal of the fund is to assist in putting more renewable energy projects on the ground locally, which in turn puts more renewable energy into the energy grid mix.

CID staff will email your invoice to the contacts on file. Once received, you have 30 days to pay the invoice.Please pay your fees via credit card or e-check through the city’s Online General Bill Payment portal or by mailing a check payable to the City of Boulder EIOF with a copy of the invoice to:

City of Boulder
Attn: Accounts Receivable – EIOF
PO Box 791
Boulder, CO 80306-0791

To show compliance with this ordinance requirement, you must pay down the bill monthly and have it paid off before your annual license renewal and/or the next electricity offset invoice is issued. If you would like to discuss a payment plan or installment agreement, please contact the EIOF staff.

Any requests for invoice corrections to prior payments and/or credit through a city program must be submitted through a written request. Formal approval or rejection of the request will be provided in writing by the city. If an EIOF invoice was issued and paid, then errors were identified, it is the licensee's obligation to submit documentation as proof to the city that the invoice amount should be corrected. The city will evaluate and correct the EIOF amount and fee discrepancies will be credited to the next EIOF invoice.

The new business will register and set up a new ESPM account under the new name and contacts. Then the current owner, once fully compliant with all offset obligations paid to date, will transfer the facility’s historical energy use into the new owner’s ESPM account. Please see specific instructions on how to transfer an existing ESPM account to the new business taking over the cultivation facility.

Contact the Regulatory Licensing Division at licensingonline@bouldercolorado.gov to begin the process AND email the EIOF team at EIOF@bouldercolorado.gov to arrange final payment of your offset obligation. Per city manager rule, the company cannot relinquish their license until these fees are paid in full.

Steps

1. Log into the Property Data Administrator's (PDA/owner) account (only the PDA can transfer)
2. On the My Portfolio tab, on the bottom-left, click "Transfer ownership"
   
3. Select the Properties that you want to transfer
4. Click "Transfer Property."
5. You'll get a notification that says you have chosen to transfer a property, and if the other person accepts you will no longer have access to this property. Click "Continue" to proceed.
6. The person you are transferring to will get a notification that you are transferring a property to them. They can accept or reject the transfer. If they accept the property will be removed from your account and put into the new account

Note: When you transfer a property to another user, it will not affect all of the people who have access to that property. They will all still have the same access.