Power Ahead Colorado Opens June 29: A $1,500 Heat Pump Rebate for the Denver Metro

Power Ahead Colorado is a rebate program run by the Denver Regional Council of Governments (DRCOG). The piece that matters to most homeowners is simple: a flat $1,500 toward a cold-climate heat pump, the same amount whether the system is ducted or ductless. Applications open on June 29, 2026, and the project has to be completed on or after that date to count.

The heat pump rebate is one slice of a larger 273 million dollar effort funded by an EPA Climate Pollution Reduction Grant and a local government match. DRCOG plans to issue more than 40,000 rebates through 2030, alongside free energy advising and a separate low-income program. For a Denver metro homeowner replacing a furnace and AC with a heat pump, the part you interact with is the $1,500.

It is not a tax credit you file for and wait on. It is a point-of-project rebate that a participating contractor applies for before the work starts. We've been doing heat pump installs across the metro since 2014, and we file this paperwork the same way we already handle Xcel and the state credit.

Power Ahead has no income limit, which is the biggest practical difference from the program it replaces. The eligibility rules are about the property and the equipment, not your household income:

• Location: the home is in a DRCOG-participating municipality or county. That covers most of the Denver metro, including Adams, Arapahoe, Boulder, Broomfield, Denver, Douglas, and Jefferson counties.
• Existing home: Power Ahead is for retrofits. New construction is not eligible.
• Equipment: a cold-climate certified ducted heat pump or ductless mini-splitthat meets the program's efficiency requirements. A standard, non-cold-climate heat pump does not qualify.
• Timing: the install is completed on or after June 29, 2026.

The equipment rule is rarely a hurdle for our customers. Colorado gets cold enough that we spec cold-climate systems anyway, so a system sized to actually heat your home through a Denver winter is the same system Power Ahead wants to see.

One detail worth knowing: the rebate is open to single-family homes, multifamily buildings (common areas excluded), and commercial property. It is not only a single-family program.

Power Ahead stacks with the rebates you already qualify for, as long as your total incentives don't exceed the full project cost. On a typical 3-ton cold-climate heat pump for an Xcel customer:

• Xcel Energy: $6,750
• Power Ahead Colorado: $1,500
• Colorado state tax credit: $1,000

That is about $9,250 in combined rebates on a 3-ton system, with no income check anywhere in the stack. We apply qualifying programs as discounts on your invoice, so you see the net number before we start.

Now the honest part. Power Ahead is the replacement for HEAR, the income-qualified federal rebate whose Front Range funding was fully reserved on April 28, 2026. If you income-qualified for HEAR, it was worth up to $8,000, which is real money that Power Ahead's $1,500doesn't match. Power Ahead trades that larger ceiling for two things HEAR didn't offer: no income limit, and no state approval queue to wait through. The two programs both draw on federal funding, so they were never going to stack anyway, and for new Front Range projects HEAR is no longer on the table.

Power Ahead is a pre-approval program, so the order of operations matters:

1. You get a quote that includes the $1,500 rebate.
2. We file the rebate application and get it approved before the install begins.
3. We install your cold-climate heat pump (on or after June 29, 2026).
4. The work is verified, and the approved rebate is paid out within 60 days.

The payment can be directed to the contractor or to you. We handle the filing either way, the same as we do for Xcel and the state credit. The one thing we can't do is back-date it: a system that goes in before June 29 doesn't qualify, so if you're close to that date, the timing is worth a conversation.

If you're weighing a heat pump this summer, get a free estimateand we'll show you the full rebate stack for your address and equipment. For the complete program details, see our Power Ahead Colorado rebate page.