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Issues management involves Colorado Springs ratepayers in resource planning

The Colorado Springs Utilities issues management department designed this simple graph to illustrate the concept of integrated resource planning to customers at public meetings. (Artwork courtesy of Colorado Springs Utilities)

Recognizing that customer input is as critical to the planning process as it is difficult to obtain, Colorado Springs Utilities came up with a comprehensive public outreach plan to accompany the reevaluation of its 2002 electric integrated resource plan.

In the two years following the implementation of the EIRP, a number of events occurred in the city at the foot of Pikes Peak that needed to be factored into the long-term strategic plan. Among those changes, the municipal utility implemented demand side management programs. Newer forecasts indicated that peak demands projected to grow 43 percent were likely to increase only 31 percent. Drought conditions reduced the capacity of the Manitou Springs hydroelectric plant, electric load for the new Southern Delivery System pumping stations was postponed from 2006 to 2009 and the ground water well pumping load was eliminated. Finally, increasing air conditioning levels changed the forecasted electric load profile from a winter, cold weather peak load to a summer peak load.

Demonstration project leads to rethinking public outreach strategy
One event more than others, however, changed Springs Utilities’ approach to engaging customers in discussing issues about their electrical service: The Department of Energy chose the city as one of eight demonstration projects for the Clean Coal Power Initiative. During the application process, Springs Utilities hosted a few meetings and talked with ratepayers who showed an interest in the initiative—in other words, the power provider held a routine public comment period.

Then, as Springs Utilities Issues Manager Lisa Mills put it, “Surprise! We got the project. The media gave the award a lot of coverage, and suddenly, stakeholders started voicing concerns,” she recalled.

The Clean Coal project was discontinued due to changing load forecasts, but it showed the utility the need to get customers involved in project planning as early as possible. “That’s the time to find out what their concerns are and to mitigate them,” stated Mills.

Mills, a member of the Issue Management Council, favored a systematic approach to public outreach. “Issues management is a process to find out what stakeholders know about a project and what their values are. It’s a way to identify risks and options and track results,” she explained. “It mitigates those surprise front page headlines.”

Issues management gave Springs Utilities a way to build a stronger relationship with its customers, closing the gap between its policies and programs and ratepayer expectations. In 2001, the utility established the four-person issues management department, which Mill heads. Revising the EIRP was the department’s first chance to apply the comprehensive approach to a long-range project. “The EIRP is a great opportunity for customers to voice their concerns and opinions about their power supply,” said Mills.

Public meetings, surveys educate customers about EIRP
Before Springs Utilities could take the EIRP process to its customers, however, issues management had to take its plan to other departments. “Successful public outreach has to be an integrated effort,” Mills pointed out. “Survey materials were developed, and technical advisors helped with presentations. It’s important to enlist all the expertise in your organization.”

Starting in January, Springs Utilities held the first of four public meetings where participants learned about the EIRP and discussed concerns and options, about the process and the plan itself. An early lesson to come out of the meetings, recalled Gail Conners, who was in charge of the EIRP outreach project, was, “Keep it simple. So we came up with a conceptual graph to illustrate what an EIRP is for.”

The surveys Conners developed with the customer research department were designed to collect feedback from people who might not attend public meetings. The first—not a statistically valid effort—was to learn about customer values. The second determined what customers knew about renewable energy and the final survey asked about their comfort zone with rate hikes. “The last two were statistically valid. However, for the first survey, we got a total of 800 back,” she noted. “There is no way to reach everybody who ought to have input, but it was a good cross section.”

Springs Utilities ambassadors—employees who belong to outside organizations—circulated the survey among their groups. It was also posted on the utility’s Web site, and inserted in a monthly billing. Conners interviewed individuals at community presentations to seniors, affordable housing managers and large commercial accounts, to name only a few groups. After the final public meeting in August, Conners and the customer research department compiled the findings to incorporate into the EIRP.

Issues management department receives national recognition
The final issues management report goes into great detail, said Mills. “The challenge is to show stakeholders how their comments affected the analysis.”

Springs Utilities plans to submit its EIRP to Western in the first quarter of 2005, but the Issue Management Council didn’t wait to commend the utility’s public outreach efforts. “The council created a Special Merit Award for designing and launching an in-house issue management process,” Mills said proudly.

What really counts to Colorado Springs Utilities and its issue managers, though, is knowing that the process produced the best possible plan. “After thorough public participation, both our customers and Western can see that we’ve chosen the best options,” said Mills, adding, “Kudos to Western for making the EIRP a requirement.”