All Posts Tagged With: "Colorado Public Utilities Commission"

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SmartGridCity Slammed at PUC Hearing

Both regular citizens and businesses took shots at Xcel Energy’s multimillion dollar Boulder-based SmartGridCity pilot at a PUC hearing yesterday. The ambitious program was cited for not having strong cost controls, according to filings by the commission staff and citizen watchdog groups.

1Sep2010 | admin | 0 comments | Continued
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West Slope Miners Protest Coal Bill

“You might wonder why I got all the applause,” he said speaking to a crowd of hundreds. “It’s (because) I’m just one of the coal miners here. I’m one of the ones … afraid this bill is going to do away with my job.” Winey was one of several coal miners who spoke to members of the Colorado PUC yesterday in Grand Junction during a public input session on the fallout of the Clean Air, Clean Jobs Act.

31Aug2010 | admin | 1 comment | Continued
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Focus on Renewables Development Policy
This Installment: COMMUNITY SOLAR GARDENS

Welcome to Renewables Development Policy, a new topic area from Colorado Energy News created to provide our readers with reporting and insightful analysis of the most current issues impacting development of renewable energy in Colorado. This month we’re focusing on the opportunities and challenges involved with Community Solar Gardens.

18Aug2010 | admin | 1 comment | Continued
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GEO’s 2010 Utilities Report for Colorado
an Eye-Opener

The report provides an in-depth description of the state’s sprawling utility marketplace, including individual profiles of all 65 utilities, with a breakdown of their generation fuel mix, incentives for energy efficiency and renewable energy, governance structure, customer split and more.

6Aug2010 | admin | 0 comments | Continued
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Tiered Rates Are
Fair Rates

Much has been said and written lately about the new tiered electric rates for residential customers of Xcel Energy. Some of it has been accurate, but a lot of it has been misleading. The Colorado Public Utilities Commission understands that consumers are concerned about the impact of the new rate structure on their utility bills. As with any electric rate structure, some customers will benefit more than others based on their patterns of usage.

15Jun2010 | admin | 5 comments | Continued
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Viewpoint: The Billion Dollar Block of Concrete

The insider joke is that utilities always want to build the next “billion dollar block of concrete” — not for the power, but because it can be added to their “rate base” and thus earn these returns. Why is their return on capital far higher than you or I can make on a secure investment?

13Mar2010 | admin | 0 comments | Continued
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State PUC Approves Xcel’s Two-Tier
Rate Structure

The plan essentially means the more electricity consumers use, the more they would pay. From June through September, Xcel’s 1.1 million residential customers will be charged a lower rate for the first 500 kilowatt-hours per month and a higher rate for all electricity above that amount.

4Mar2010 | admin | 6 comments | Continued
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Festering Issue — The Cost of Smart Grid and
Who Should Pay

The price tag for upgrading the country’s system is set at $165 billion over the next two decades according to industry experts. As the costs mount, consumer advocates in Colorado and across the country are questioning how smart grid should be financed and who should pay the bill.

15Feb2010 | admin | 0 comments | Continued
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PUC Orders More Transparency for Boulder Smart Grid

The smart grid already allows Xcel to read meters in Boulder remotely, route power around bottle-necked lines and detect power outages without relying on people calling in. But the utility now says it believes the total bill will reach $42.1 million, not including O&M costs.

8Feb2010 | admin | 0 comments | Continued
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Transmission Talks Heat Up in Southern Colorado

The arguments between the utility companies proposing the line and their opponents have mushroomed as the state and federal government carry out separate reviews. Xcel Energy and Tri-State say the line is necessary to export wind and solar power to the Front Range.

17Jan2010 | admin | 0 comments | Continued
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Tri-State, Western Resource Advocates Reach Accord on Electric Resource Planning

WRA energy program director John Nielsen said the new approach is a big step forward “because it provides an opportunity for members of the public to work with Tri-State to consider the role that clean-energy resources might play in its resource plan.”

10Dec2009 | admin | 0 comments | Continued
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Xcel Gets Reduced Rate Increase and
Admonishment from State PUC

The PUC estimates the increase will raise the average residential electricity bill by 6.5 percent, or about $4.43 a month. “No one likes a rate increase,” PUC Chairman Ron Binz said in a release. “But we scrubbed Xcel’s request thoroughly and believe that the reduced amount is fair.”

7Dec2009 | admin | 2 comments | Continued
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Solar Trade Group Praises Xcel’s Reworked
Rebate Program

Responding to the utility company’s 2010 solar Compliance Plan submitted to the PUC last week, the state’s leading solar industry trade group said the revised strategy highlights the need to increase the state’s Renewable Energy Standard (RES).

8Nov2009 | admin | 0 comments | Continued
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Xcel Submits Plan to Rev Up Renewables

The proposal before the State PUC outlines how Xcel will adjust its energy mix away from coal-fired power production and more toward “green” energy production. The company says it wants to add roughly 980 megawatts of solar and wind power by 2015 and cut carbon emissions by 10 percent.

11Aug2009 | admin | 0 comments | Continued
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Xcel Subverts Solar

Xcel Energy has distinguished itself over the last couple of years as one of the more progressive utilities in the country in terms of renewable-energy initiatives. Much of that good work has been overshadowed, in recent weeks, by the outcry over Xcel’s efforts to raise rates, and reduce solar rebates, to pay for the new $1.35-billion coal-fired generator at the Comanche Station in Pueblo.

10Aug2009 | admin | 0 comments | Continued
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Xcel Drops Rate Increase Proposal to
Solar Customers

Gov. Ritter said he believed Xcel’s new minimum monthly bill, if implemented, would have been a disincentive for customers to buy solar panel arrays, stifling job growth, inhibiting future economic development and penalizing those voluntarily invested in clean energy.

5Aug2009 | admin | 1 comment | Continued
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