Menomonie Joins Xcel Energy’s Partners in Energy Initiative

Dunn County businesses and residents will now have additional opportunities for reducing their energy bills. Menomonie, the largest city in the county, recently joined Xcel Energy’s Partners in Energy initiative - a platform designed to help reduce energy bills and a business or family’s carbon footprint at the same time. 

How Partners in Energy Works

Xcel Energy will first work with the city to create a strategic action plan. This will be specific to Menomonie and involve conversations with city leaders, stakeholders and Xcel Energy’s team. This process can take up to a year, as it is designed to be very thorough and include community feedback. Brian Elwood, General Manager of Customer & Community Service told the Dunn County News, “We are pleased to work with the city of Menomonie to bring Partners in Energy to the community and we look forward to collaborating on a unique plan that will help them achieve their energy goals.”

Through the strategic planning process, Xcel Energy will provide the city with more information about how the city uses energy, where it comes from now, what the city’s carbon footprint looks like and how to reduce it by moving to carbon free electricity - the city has a goal to be 100% carbon free by 2050. 

Becoming carbon free takes collaboration

Moving towards carbon free energy is a significant goal and one that was championed at the executive level. In 2019, the Governor of Wisconsin, Tony Evers, signed an executive order calling for the state to be 100% carbon free electricity by 2050. Though there is still a debate within the state legislature over whether or not to codify this, at the local level the Menomonie City Council has voted to reach this goal. In April of 2020, the Council voted unanimously to pass the resolution which states the goal to “Move towards municipal carbon reduction with incremental drawdown targets of 25 percent by 2030 and 60 percent by 2040” and “in partnership with other state, county, local agencies, local businesses and utility providers, achieve a goal of ensuring all electricity consumed within the state of Wisconsin is 100 percent carbon-free by 2050.”

The city and county understands that this cannot be done without the support of private industry. Xcel Energy has the tools and resources in place to help city leaders create the strategic plan they will need to move towards carbon free electricity. Businesses and residents will be the beneficiary. As the plan is rolled out they will likely have opportunities to reduce their energy consumption and cost. This is one additional advantage for businesses wishing to locate in the West Central Wisconsin region.