Xcel Energy offers a $10,000 rebate on home backup battery systems for customers who live in Tier 2 or Tier 3 wildfire risk zones and rely on electricity for their health. Denver7 wanted to know how far will that rebate get Coloradans during power outages.
To receive the rebate, individuals need to be an Xcel customer, signed up for the company’s Medical Certification Program or the Colorado Medical Exemption Program, and live in wildfire risk zones.
Nate Metzler, a licensed solar electrician with Namaste Solar, said interest in backup battery systems has surged following a series of Public Safety Power Shutoffs tied to high winds and wildfire danger.
“We’ve had these… planned outages from Xcel because of high winds,” Metzler said. “We’ve been getting a lot of inquiries about battery systems from that.”
Matt Griffin, a sales representative at Namaste Solar, told Denver7 the $10,000 rebate covers roughly 50 to 60% of the cost of one backup battery, including installation.
“The program’s really designed to help folks who are only installing a battery without solar, let’s say, find where they are going to go next,” Griffin said.
A single backup battery on its own will likely only last a couple of hours during an outage, even if electricity is used conservatively. Griffin said customers who can afford to go further will get significantly more protection by pairing a battery with solar panels.
A typical installation of about eight to 10 solar panels and one backup battery runs, roughly, between $25,000 and $35,000 before incentives. That kind of system can power a home on its own while the sun is shining, supplemented by the battery into nighttime.
“The best advice that anyone can give you about a battery is that, in an outage event, conservation of your energy use is key,” Griffin said. “If you think of it like, you have this tank of electricity, and if you're using every single appliance in your house, that tank is going to drain very fast.”
If you have a medical device and are running off a battery alone, conserving as much electricity as possible is critical, and having a plan for when the battery runs out is equally important.
Beyond the Xcel rebate for qualifying customers, additional incentives are available to the broader public. Those include State of Colorado tax credits, which typically amount to between $1,000 and $2,000, according to Griffin. There is also a Tesla rebate of $500 per Powerwall, capped at two units, which runs through June 30.
Xcel also offers a separate program open to nearly all of its customers. The Renewable Battery Connect program gives up to $5,000 in rebates towards backup batteries in exchange for giving Xcel five years of access to a customer’s battery with up to 60 discharge events per year back to the grid.
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