How Colorado residents get help paying an energy bill in 2026
Colorado residents looking for help paying an energy bill in 2026 now have a closer place to start. Energy Outreach Colorado, a nonprofit that helps cover heating and utility costs, gave 605,000 dollars on January 7, 2026, to 9 local organizations across the state. Each group spends 2026 connecting residents in its area to 3 kinds of help, the Low Income Energy Assistance Program, called LEAP, which pays part of a winter heating bill, the Weatherization Assistance Program, which pays to seal and insulate a home, and bill payment assistance and energy efficiency help run by Energy Outreach Colorado itself.
The average is calculated by dividing the total by the count of organizations. Energy Outreach Colorado does not publish how much each group received.
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| Total, funding | 605,000 |
| Average, per group | 67,222 |
Which of the 9 groups serves your Colorado county
Cloud City Conservation serves Lake and Chaffee counties. La Plata Family Center Coalition serves the Durango area and Mesa, Archuleta and San Juan counties. BuCu West serves Denver Metro, Adams, Jefferson and Arapahoe counties. Tri County Health Network serves Delta and Montrose counties. Eagle Valley Community Foundation serves Eagle, Pitkin and Garfield counties. Colectiva Creando Cambios serves Denver, Boulder, Arapahoe and Weld counties. East Colfax Community Collective serves Denver and Arapahoe counties. Viva Resource serves El Paso, Teller and Pueblo counties. Focus Points Family Resource Center serves Denver Metro, Adams and Arapahoe counties, with a focus on the Globeville community in Denver.
Where the 605,000 dollars comes from
A selection committee made up of representatives from the state of Colorado, Xcel Energy, a community partner and Energy Outreach Colorado picked the 9 organizations through a competitive process. The committee favored groups that could reach residents with a high energy burden, low use of assistance programs, limited access to weatherization or solar, and a high share of immigrant, refugee or newcomer residents. The money comes from the Energy Assistance System Benefit Charge, a fee that House Bill 1105, passed in 2021, adds to every investor owned electric and natural gas bill in Colorado. The law set the charge at 50 cents per customer for electric service and 50 cents for natural gas service starting in October 2021, then raised each to 75 cents in September 2022, a 50% rise within its first year.
The charge applies once for electric service and once for natural gas service on the same bill. Both amounts come from the same 2021 law, House Bill 1105.
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| Before, September 2022 | 50 |
| After, September 2022 | 75 |
This model represents a meaningful shift in how we think about outreach.
Jennifer Gremmert, Chief executive officer of Energy Outreach Colorado. Source 1.
What LEAP and the weatherization program actually do for a Colorado household
The programs these grants point residents toward have real reach. LEAP pays part of a winter heating bill for a household with income up to 60% of the state median income level, and opens applications for the 2026 to 2027 season on November 1, 2026, the Colorado Department of Human Services states. The Weatherization Assistance Program has run nationally since 1976, reaching about 32,000 homes a year and helping more than 7.2 million families altogether, the United States Department of Energy states, and a qualifying household saves an average of 372 dollars a year on its bills.