Phius Policy Analyst Zoe Rader provides an in-depth breakdowns of financial incentives available for Phius training courses and Phius building Certification in Colorado.
You know how baseball games usually have people walking around with hotdog baskets strapped to their chests yelling, “Hotdogs! Get your hotdogs!”? That’s how I feel with all these Phius policies lately.
I feel like I should go around yelling, “Funding! Get your Phius funding!” Seriously, there’s so much money floating around, just waiting to be spent on Phius projects and trainings, it’s not even funny. And that brings me to the subject of this blog. This one’s for our Coloradans (admittedly, I only recently learned that’s what you call people from Colorado) – whether you’re new to Phius and want to get a professional certification or you’ve been working on a Phius project and are looking for funding, there are plenty of financial incentives to go around.
But before we get into the fun stuff, let’s take a quick second to make a distinction: getting a professional certification through Phius is completely different from certifying your building with Phius. Therefore, there are policies that offer cash incentives for Phius Certification while others offer cash incentives for Phius training courses. The Phius policy framework that exists in Colorado is unique compared to other states, because there are a multitude of both types of incentives.
We’ll start with the training incentives, because it’s hard to have a Phius project without a Phius professional!
Xcel Energy has partnered with Phius to sponsor Phius Certified Builder Training for architects and builders who build in Xcel Energy service areas. This sponsorship covers 90% of the training costs! Follow the steps below to apply:
Building and consulting not for you? Well, no worries because Xcel Energy has partnered with Phius to also sponsor Phius Certified Verifier Training for those aiming to do ratings in Xcel Energy service areas. The big difference between this incentive and the one laid out above? This sponsorship covers 100% of the training costs! The steps to apply are the same as above.
Similar to the incentives above, the City of Denver is also offering funding for a multitude of Phius training courses.
In order to be eligible for this professional development rebate, you must either be a student at a college or trade school in Denver, live in Denver, or work for a Denver-based business. The City of Denver will provide reimbursement up to $2,500 for nearly ALL Phius training courses including Phius Foundations, Phius Certified Consultant, Phius Certified Rater/Verifier, Phius Certified Trades Professional, and Phius Certified Builder¹.
Not only are nearly all Phius training courses covered, but you’re also able to stack trainings. For example, if you were to take a training that is less than $2,500. The City of Denver will then cover another training until you have maxed out the total of $2,500. Seriously, you can’t make this stuff up!
Xcel Energy is offering a rebate of $30,000 (or $40,000² if your project’s permit date predates December 31, 2026³) for single-family, all-electric homes meeting or exceeding Phius CORE requirements. To be eligible for this rebate, you must be a non-profit builder, or a market-rate builder working on affordable housing, in an Xcel Energy service area.
Generally, for Phius Certification incentives, full Certification must be met in order to receive any funding. However, with this incentive, half of the rebate may be obtained upon providing Xcel with a Design Certification Letter from Phius. Please contact Erik Straite (erik.straite@residentialscience.com) for incentive-specific questions.
Similar to the incentive mentioned above, Xcel Energy is offering a separate incentive of $25,000 for single-family, all-electric projects meeting or exceeding Phius Certification in Xcel Energy service areas. Not only can a Phius project receive $25,000, but if a ground-source heat pump is also used, that same project may be eligible for an additional $5,000. Please contact Erik Straite (erik.straite@residentialscience.com) for incentive-specific questions. Note that the project’s permit date must be on or before December 31, 2026.
And finally, our cleanup hitter: the City of Denver’s Pilot Rebate Program for All-Electric Affordable Housing. Now, not only is there funding available for receiving Phius Certification here, but also some equipment rebates! And the best part? We get to load the bases and hit a grand slam with this incentive money! Okay, be honest… have I gone too far with the baseball analogy? I sure hope not, because I promise you there’s more to come.
Anyway, before we get too far into left field (I’m sorry, I had to) let’s take a closer look at this rebate program, because there’s a couple of different pieces: heat pump equipment rebates (up to $600,000 per project), Design Certification rebates ($600/dwelling unit, up to $150,000 per project), and Phius Certification rebates ($3,000/dwelling unit, up to $500,000 per project). Below is a list of eligible heat pump equipment and a table further describing the Certification rebates:
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In summation, if a project had enough dwelling units and heat pumps it could theoretically receive a total of $1.15 million! Note that this rebate does not have an expiration date, but the structure is likely to change at the start of 2027.
Final note here: for a project to be eligible for this rebate, it must be located within the City and County of Denver, cannot be owned by the City and County of Denver and must be a new affordable housing project.
Time to bring it home! I promise you that pun was unintended, but I will be continuing the analogy, completely on purpose. The more we understand the policy purpose and cycle, the more effective we can be.
In an ideal world, we have someone newer to Phius who reads this blog and finds out they are eligible for one of the many training incentives (they’ve just hit a single). They sign up for a training and become a Phius Certified Consultant (they’re really fast, so they just stole second). Now, let’s say this same person was also already working on a project, and it’s still in the early design stages so there’s plenty of time — and incentive money — to make it a Phius project. So they register and go through a few rounds of design review, and finally receive Design Certification (pitcher throws a wild pitch and we’ve now stolen third).
They then convince a work friend (at a different company) to read the blog and get certified through Phius as a Rater/Verifier. This new Rater/Verifier takes on this project to help bring it through the construction phase and submits it for Phius Certification. They go through a couple rounds of final review and finally receive Certification. This project, and the project team, has now hit a 2-run homerun and become what I like to refer to as a “Policy Project” (a project that utilized a Phius policy to facilitate achieving Certification).
Anyway, I hope you’ve enjoyed our fun game of Phius Policy Baseball and I hope to see you stepping up to the plate soon!
¹ Because Xcel is offering to pay 90% of the Phius Certified Builder training, the City of Denver will cover the remaining 10%.
² The $40,000 before 12/31/26 replaces the $30,000 incentive, it is not additive.
³ The expiration/permit date of 12/31/26 is only for the $10,000 bonus ($40,000 total); the $30,000 rebate will remain through 2027, or until funding runs out.
