The City of Boulder’s hearing on the new energy code update was postponed from its original date in April to May, allowing the Boulder City Council to address Xcel Energy’s power outages on April 6 and 7. The update, still scheduled to take effect on July 1 of this year, prohibits the use of gas in all new residential buildings and most commercial buildings, with limited exceptions for facilities like laboratories and commercial kitchens. This gas ban follows the lead of dozens of cities across the country in phasing out fossil fuels.
Yet with Xcel’s recent outage, some have wondered about this update. If Xcel plans to continue using this new fire mitigation technique — preemptively cutting power to sections of the electric grid — should we increase our reliance on electricity?
Carolyn Elam, sustainability senior manager for the City of Boulder, explained that we are already completely dependent on the electric grid.
“Gas appliances installed in homes today will also not function without electricity,” Elam told Boulder Reporting Lab. “Electricity is the lifeblood that powers all our appliances, whether gas or electric.”
Elam added that although electric outages may become more frequent, gas outages can occur and are more challenging to resolve. “Recall the Marshall Fire,” Elam said. “People outside the fire boundary also lost gas service when the system depressurized. Xcel had to visit each affected home and business to restore gas service and relight pilot lights.”
If anything, Elam said, the April 6-7 outage reaffirmed the need for the city’s energy code strategy. With stringent requirements for building insulation, a home that loses power would retain its heat, or coolness provided by air-conditioning, much longer. Plus, the energy code’s efficiency requirements will cause most new buildings to have rooftop solar, adding resiliency to the system.
“Most every building will have solar,” Elam said, “which means that those concerned about outages can more easily add battery backup and have a means of charging that battery in an extended outage.”
And as the president of Xcel Energy’s Colorado subsidiary noted to the city council last week, it’s climate change that is spurring wildfires to increase in frequency and intensity, highlighting the need to end dependence on the primary contributor to a warming climate: fossil fuels such as coal and gas.
Read BRL’s extensive coverage of the Xcel Energy outage and its impacts.
“Gas appliances installed in homes today will also not function without electricity.” This is only partly true. The oven in modern stoves requires electricity, but the stovetop burners usually do not.
“Gas appliances installed in homes today will also not function without electricity,” Elam told Boulder Reporting Lab.
That’s flat out not true. We have a gas water heater and had hot water for the 3 days of the power outage. I was surprised, I assumed the gas would go off along with the electricity. I’m extremely grateful it did stay on, it was really cold, and cold showers on top of an icy apt is no fun.
That’s funny. When the electric power was out both times, my gas stove worked and so did both of my gas fireplaces. Relying on an all electrical grid is crazy. Rooftop solar only works when the sun is out, unless you have large battery backups.