Dive Brief:
- Colorado regulators have delayed a decision on whether to dismiss Boulder's bid to form a municipal utility, asking the city and Xcel Energy to file additional briefs, BizWest reports.
- The Public Utilities Commission narrowed the focus of the proceeding, and determined Xcel's motion to dismiss would hinge on Boulder's plan to serve residents outside the city limits.
- PUC staff supported Xcel's motion to reject the plan, finding the city's application was incomplete.
Dive Insight:
No decision yet on Xcel's motion to squash Boulder's municipal plan. With PUC staff supporting Xcel's move, the commission's meeting this week could potentially have been the end of the city's plan. But instead, regulators have narrowed the scope and asked the parties to file additional briefs, delaying the decision.
The issue is centered on residential customers outside the city's boundaries, and if the city can legally take over Xcel's infrastructure to serve them. Regulators have directed Boulder and the utility to file briefs centered on the doctrine of regulated monopolies.
But the city has also indicated it would be willing to consider other arrangements to serve those customers, possibly circumventing the issue.
Boulder has said it is now open to the idea of Xcel owning the distribution system outside of the city limits, and disputed lines would go to the electric service provider serving more customers on the line. The city has also said in the past it would like to avoid construction of new infrastructure, but in an amended application said facilities "could be constructed to address specific customer locations."
The city filed its application in July, but Xcel has opposed the utility's plan — and regulators in late August allowed five additional interveners to join the proceeding, essentially doubling the number of parties involved. The case is not expected to conclude until 2017.
