Dive Brief:

• Colorado regulators have affirmed an oral decision delivered in November that rejected a portion of Boulder's bid to form a municipal utility, but the city is still in talks with Xcel to find a solution, the Daily Camera reports. 
• In its decision two months ago, the Colorado Public Utilities Commission determined the city's plan to take over Xcel Energy's infrastructure in unincorporated areas violated the principles of monopoly operation and could not move ahead.
• But regulators also said they will allow Boulder and Xcel to enter a discovery phase in which the city can attempt to learn more about the utility's transmissions system and develop possible solutions.

Dive Insight:

Boulder's bid to establish a municipal utility didn't get any easier when Colorado regulators finalized their November decision, but the PUC's order does allow for a discovery period so that the city can learn more about Xcel's system.

In July 2015, Boulder filed an application to take over Xcel assets to form its own utility, pointing to a need for a more flexible grid to support distributed energy and variable generation of renewables. Part of its supplementation to its application called for Xcel to continue supplying the city with electricity for a five-year period beginning in 2018 as they transition to a municipal utility.

The city also asked to take over Xcel's power lines, including some infrastructure that used to serve residents outside of Boulder. That's where the issues of monopoly operation came in, with regulators determining that taking over the wires outside the town is not an option.

“It is clear that the application as submitted infringes upon the exclusive service territory of [Xcel]," Colorado PUC Chairman Joshua Epel said in November.

Little changed in the commission's final decision, according to Boulder's executive director of energy strategy and electric utility development. 

"I think it's pretty similar to what we heard on Nov. 4, because they said they wanted a detailed engineering plan," Heather Bailey told the Daily Camera. "They wanted more detail, but they understand there couldn't be that, without our getting more information coming from Xcel."

Boulder will now sit down with Xcel to attempt to find a solution, but it appears there is some confusion how that will procedurally occur. Bailey told the Daily Camera that the city must now wait on Chairman Epel to set a discovery time, but another commissioner indicated the city would need to propose a schedule.