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Pueblo County highlights $1M+ in grants, EV charging and major energy savings in 2024 report
Summary
County energy management staff told commissioners they secured more than $1 million in grants (mostly for EV charging), installed public-facing courthouse chargers, achieved six-figure kWh savings across county buildings and plan fleet charging sites and further lighting and automation projects.
Pueblo County’s energy management team reported more than $1 million in grant awards and six-figure energy and cost savings for 2024 during the Board of County Commissioners’ April work session.
Jared Mura, program manager for the county’s energy program, told commissioners the majority of grant funding supported electric-vehicle charging infrastructure; the county recently held a ribbon-cutting for public-facing chargers at the courthouse and is designing three dedicated fleet charging sites. Mura said the county currently has no fully electric vehicles in its fleet and two hybrid vehicles and that the fleet chargers are intended to make future vehicle electrification more feasible.
Mura said the team requested about $154,000 in rebates from Black Hills Energy’s lighting program and completed lighting replacements at the courthouse, Road and Bridge office and multiple floors of the GSC building. He said lighting replacements and HVAC scheduling changes — along with building automation tweaks and reallocating solar credits — produced substantial savings.
The team reported the following 2024 figures in the presentation: roughly 75,000 kilowatt-hours (kWh) of reduced usage across multiple buildings (noting that the GSE building’s increased occupancy skewed some totals), more than 405,000 kWh saved at the Justice Plaza (the consolidated meter that feeds the jail dorm, jail tower and CSS) in part through reallocated solar credits from nine county solar sites, and a total of about 637,000 kWh in solar credits allocated. Mura said solar allocations alone produced roughly $50,000 in cost savings, and that combined gas and electric cost savings for 2024 versus 2023 exceeded $400,000 across the portfolio.
Jacqueline Hernandez, who described her role as organizing and analyzing utility data, said data consolidation into a centralized Energy Star account enabled the county to standardize building information and helped the county expand Energy Star certifications from two buildings in 2023 to four by 2024, including the courthouse and the district attorney’s office. Emily Cruz, sustainability specialist, described goals including beneficial electrification, charging infrastructure, recycling improvements and maintaining county certification status.
Commissioners asked about charging-station pay models, recycling access and the new Front Range Transload rail transload facility; staff said the transload project — implemented by a private company with state funding and partnerships that include Pueblo County — will allow rail transport of recyclables and is intended primarily for business use while also serving public and partner needs.
Mura said additional opportunities remain: conservative estimates show roughly 400,000 kWh of savings potential through expanded building automation and 708,000 kWh through lighting replacements alone, and changing schedule controls and adding occupancy sensors could further reduce demand charges. The team requested continued interdepartmental collaboration to capture cost-savings and to reinvest savings into further infrastructure work.
