Dive Brief:
- Xcel Energy wants the Boulder District Court to dismiss a condemnation request filed last month by the City of Boulder that would force Xcel, through eminent domain, to sell its Boulder distribution system, including nine substations and the 115 kilovolt transmission loop.
- In a battle of filings and appeals, Boulder is appealing a 2013 Colorado Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) ruling that the city must determine through a commission proceeding which facilities it may obtain, how the systems would be separated, and how electricity customers beyond the city limits should be serviced.
- Xcel attorneys argued the City of Boulder disregard for a binding CPUC ruling, which would have settled the issue, is adequate grounds for dismissal of the condemnation case. A Boulder spokesperson said the PUC decision is not binding because Boulder's “home rule city” status gives it condemnation powers outside the appropriate PUC regulatory oversight of the separation.
Dive Insight:
Because the rights of customers outside Boulder’s city limits is exactly the kind of matter to which the PUC’s jurisdiction and expertise apply, the condemnation should not proceed until the commissioners rule, according to Xcel. Xcel also argued that the Boulder court has no jurisdiction except to dismiss Boulder’s filing and that Boulder has not made clear what parts of the infrastructure the city is claiming.
Boulder has acknowledged Xcel’s right to continue serving customers outside the city limits. Boulder wants the city’s newly constituted municipal utility to use the infrastructure to bring renewables into the city’s energy mix faster than Xcel was doing it.
