Utility On-Bill Repayment Program Financing

The bill requires the Colorado energy office (office) to establish a state utility on-bill repayment program to help finance certain gas and electric utilities' on-bill repayment programs (on-bill repayment program), which are programs through which energy efficiency measures, electrification measures, and energy upgrades installed at utility customers' premises are financed through loans that the customers repay through their monthly utility bill payments. The bill requires gas or electric investor-owned utilities that serve more than 500,000 customers to propose a plan to the public utilities commission for establishing or expanding an existing on-bill repayment program for the commission to review and approve, disapprove, or modify.

The bill requires the state treasurer, on July 1, 2025, to make an interest-free loan in the amount of $100 million from the unclaimed property trust fund to the state utility on-bill repayment program cash fund, which fund is created in the bill, to support the financing of the on-bill repayment programs. The office is required to pay back the loan by July 1, 2045.

(Note: This summary applies to this bill as introduced.)