Salt Lake City Residents: Share your Feedback for the Community Renewable Energy Program

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Salt Lake City has been a leader on climate initiatives for nearly two decades, taking on progressively more ambitious projects.

In 2016, the City passed a joint resolution establishing our “Climate Positive” goals, which include powering the entire Salt Lake City community with net-100% renewable electricity by 2032. This date was moved up to 2030 in a resolution from 2019.  

We’ve been busy making progress on these and other climate efforts over the last several years, most notably our work on the Community Renewable Energy Program (C-REP). 

What is the Community Renewable Energy Program? 

It began in 2019 when the Community Renewable Energy Act, also known as HB411, was passed by the State Legislature. HB 411 created a pathway for interested communities served by Rocky Mountain Power to work with the company to develop a program that will allow communities to match 100% of their annual electricity consumption with renewable energy flowing to the grid by 2030.  

Salt Lake City became eligible to participate in this Program due to the adoption of a Joint Resolution which resolves to achieve the goal of 100% renewable energy for community electricity supply by 2030.   

Today, Salt Lake City is working alongside 17 other communities to develop the Community Renewable Energy Program.

All residents, businesses, and industrial customers in participating communities will be automatically opted-in to the renewable energy program with the option to opt-out at several opportunities. 

Because of this feature, all participating communities are required by state law to develop a plan for low-income assistance, should the C-REP cost a bit more than our current rates (called “standard offer.”)  

We do not yet have the proposed rates to share with you, but we will in the coming months. We expect there may be a small monthly increase to support the development of a record-amount of wind and solar projects within our state that feed into the grid. 

In the meantime, Salt Lake City and the other communities are currently knee-deep in negotiating with Rocky Mountain Power, working with expert utility and legal consultants, and developing key elements of the Community Renewable Energy Program.

You can read more about the process and timeline here.  

We are also currently working with community organizations to develop policy recommendations and a communications framework to include in Salt Lake City’s plan for low-income assistance. 

All of this will be presented to state regulators (the Public Service Commission) with hopeful approval next year. Then communities will need to pass an ordinance cementing their formal participation. 

There will be numerous opportunities to weigh in, as well as to decide if the Community Renewable Energy Program is something you want to support or participate in.  

Here is an initial opportunity to share your thoughts:

Please take the Community Energy Survey, which will inform Salt Lake City’s plan for low-income assistance, as well as the overall program design.  It should take about 10-15 minutes. Thank you for your feedback!

The online survey is open to Salt Lake City residents through August 7, 2022.** 

**This survey was also mailed out to a small group of residents in April/May. If you already took it, thank you, and no need to take it again.