Boulder enters agreement with Xcel Energy to quicken wildfire safety upgrades
DENVER (KDVR) — The city of Boulder announced Monday that it had entered into a settlement agreement with Xcel Energy and other parties that the city said would bring faster, more equitable wildfire safety upgrades to the community.
The settlement must be approved by the Colorado Public Utilities Commission, but the agreement was filed as part of Xcel's Wildfire Mitigation Plan that guides the company's priorities. The agreement will ensure Xcel prioritizes Boulder and other wildfire-prone communities for wildfire safety investments during the next three years.
Xcel Energy proposes rate hikes, power shutoffs in $1.9B Wildfire Mitigation Plan
'This is a significant step toward making our community safer and more resilient in the face of growing wildfire threats,' said Nuria Rivera-Vandermyde, Boulder city manager, in a release. 'I am proud of the work our city team did to ensure the voices of our community, and our neighboring communities, were heard and to help shape a plan that better protects the people and places most at risk.'
According to Boulder's city website, the plan from Xcel was submitted to the PUC last summer. Boulder intervened in the PUC proceedings to help shape the plan and advocate for local priorities. Earlier this year, the city and the utility provider joined other stakeholders to present unified recommendations to the PUC, and on April 18, the comprehensive, unanimous settlement was agreed upon.
Boulder, alongside state agencies and other organizations, helped negotiate the agreement to ensure high fire risk communities are better protected from the threat of utility-ignited wildfire, such as the Marshall Fire.
The company is facing hundreds of complaints, according to information the company gave investors, after the Boulder County Sheriff's Office pointed to the electric and natural gas supplier as a possible second-ignition cause of the Marshall Fire on Dec. 30, 2021.
Then, in April 2024, Xcel Energy shut off power for tens of thousands of Denver metro customers due to high winds in the area. The action was the first of its kind to be taken in Colorado and frustrated many residents, including those who had medical needs that required power.
Xcel Energy: Proposed natural gas, energy prices may add more than $2.50 to Colorado residential bills
'The safety and wildfire resiliency of our community is a shared responsibility,' said Chief Brian Oliver, the city of Boulder Fire-Rescue's wildland division chief, in a release. 'Being able to partner with regional organizations like Xcel on wildfire resiliency is just as important as the role the city plays and the role each member of our community plays in creating defensible space and hardening homes. These efforts also go a long way in assisting response efforts.'
Xcel is assuring that its plan will accelerate wildfire safety upgrades in and around Boulder, with anticipated actions to be taken including replacing aging poles and installing stronger, more fire-resistant equipment. The utility provider also said that it will work with the city to improve how planned outages are communicated, especially for vulnerable community members.
Xcel also agreed to provide better data and clearer communication to help Boulder plan and respond to wildfire risks.
The PUC is expected to review and release a decision on the settlement later this year.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
3 hours ago
- Yahoo
Xcel Energy's 2025-2027 wildfire mitigation plan approved
DENVER (KDVR) — Xcel Energy's wildfire mitigation plan, which expands work and programs to reduce wildfire risk, was approved by the Colorado Public Utilities Commission, the company announced Friday. The plan was approved on Thursday, and Xcel Energy-Colorado president Robert Kenney said it allows the company to implement projects to protect customers and communities from the risk of wildfire. 'We worked closely with a large coalition of stakeholders representing customers, businesses, government and agencies to put forth a plan designed to keep our customers and communities safe, while keeping bills low,' Kenney said. Xcel said the 2025-2027 Wildfire Mitigation Plan outlines goals and reporting methods to better communicate the mitigation work with customers and communities, including during events like public safety power shutoffs to prevent potential ignitions from energized electrical facilities. Previous: Boulder enters agreement with Xcel Energy to quicken wildfire safety upgrades Here are the proposed investments and improvements that Xcel listed: Greater Situational Awareness: Implementing advanced fire modeling and analysis tools, adding weather stations and tripling AI cameras for early smoke detection. Technology-Enabled Inspections: Accelerating inspections in wildfire risk areas using aerial and drone methods. Infrastructure Improvements: Multi-year program to upgrade equipment, underground power lines and rebuild transmission lines. Vegetation Management: Expanding efforts in high-risk areas with new standards for inspections and pruning. Enhanced Powerline Safety Settings: Increasing remote safety settings, sectionalizing lines and adding new technology. Public Safety Power Shutoff Program: Providing interactive outage maps, proposing a backup energy rebate and improving customer support and communication. Organizational Growth: Expanding the Wildfire Risk team by improving capabilities in meteorology, fire science, risk management and analytics. 'This is a significant step toward making our community safer and more resilient in the face of growing wildfire threats,' said Nuria Rivera-Vandermyde, City of Boulder City Manager. 'With the Public Utilities Commission's approval, we're thrilled to see this plan move forward. I am proud of the work our city team did to ensure the voices of our community—and our neighboring communities—were heard and to help shape a plan that better protects the people and places most at risk.' The company said the plan is also designed to keep customer bills low by 'securitizing eligible company investments.' Xcel said the plan was verbally approved and the PUC is expected to release a written decision later this summer. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
16 hours ago
- Yahoo
Xcel president: Minnesota can meet data center energy demands and 2040 carbon-free mandate
An aerial view of the Prairie Island Nuclear Power Plant, near Red Wing, Minnesota along the Mississippi River. The two pressurized water reactors produce approximately 1,100 megawatts. (BanksPhotos via Getty Images) The intra-DFL rift between labor unions whose members build data centers and progressives skeptical of corporate giveaways was on full display at the Capitol last week as lawmakers considered extending generous tax breaks for data centers' purchases of computers, software and energy equipment. It was also evident in a May 28 energy webinar featuring top utility executives, state officials and representatives from regional labor, agriculture and environmental groups. The conversation came as Minnesota utilities weigh proposals for thousands of megawatts of new data center capacity, representing new electric consumption equal to millions of homes. As other construction sectors falter amid high interest rates and sluggish demand, union laborers and tradespeople see an opportunity in building data centers and the power plants to run them. 'We need to be involved in the next iteration of energy development here in Minnesota,' said Joe Fowler, business manager for Laborers International Union of North America Local 563. To labor, that means building not only the wind, solar and battery plants that will form the backbone of Minnesota's future electric grid, but large industrial facilities to soak up the power they produce. Others in the left-of-center coalition say unfettered data center growth could jeopardize progress toward the state's statutory target of 100% carbon-free electricity by 2040 while threatening grid reliability and raising costs for ordinary utility customers. 'We want to bring on large users like data centers, but not to the exclusion of others,' said Margaret Cherne-Hendrick, CEO of St. Paul-based Fresh Energy, a policy and communications shop focused on clean energy. Though the data center boom was the elephant in the room, the conversation touched on some of the broader challenges issues facing Minnesota electric utilities, workers and customers as a dysfunctional state legislative session limps to a close and federal policymakers get closer to passing a budget bill that cuts taxes for the rich and Medicaid for the poor while, experts say, raising power prices for everyone. Developers have proposed nearly 9,000 megawatts of new data center capacity across Xcel Energy's eight-state territory, CEO Bob Frenzel said in October, or almost 9 million homes' worth of electricity consumption. Data centers alone account for about half of Xcel's expected 5% annual sales growth through 2029. Xcel expects Minnesota's share of that growth to be about 1,300 megawatts over the next seven to eight years, said Ryan Long, Xcel's president for Minnesota and the Dakotas. That's up from 60 megawatts of total capacity as of early last year. 'The curve is up and to the right,' Long told Energy Futures Initiative Foundation CEO and former U.S. Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz on the webinar. 'It's shifted from us trying to attract (data center) companies to Minnesota to them knocking on our doors.' Smaller utilities like Dakota Electric Association are also gearing up for massive amounts of data center development, CEO Ryan Hentges said later on the webinar. Projects proposed for Dakota Electric territory include a 12-building, 340-acre Farmington campus that residents are suing to stop. But the demand won't hit all at once, Hentges said. 'One gigawatt is not all going to happen next year,' he said. 'It's going to happen over time, and that gives us more time to plan.' The short answer is yes, according to Long. Even with the influx predicted over the next five years, Xcel is on track to shut down its three remaining Minnesota coal units by 2030 and meet the interim state goal of 80% clean power by 2030, he said. 'These are aging, somewhat inefficient plants and we are blessed to live in a region that has excellent renewable resources,' he said. Xcel could partner on future 'clean firm' power projects with big tech companies, which have their own sustainability goals, Long added. Google, utility NV Energy and power developer Fervo Energy recently announced a geothermal power partnership in Nevada, while Meta, Amazon and Microsoft have all inked splashy nuclear deals. Nuclear and geothermal both produce carbon-free power without relying on variable weather conditions. Those partnerships could eventually help wean Minnesota off natural gas power despite uncertainty around federal support for cleaner technologies, said Sydnie Lieb, assistant commissioner with the Minnesota Department of Commerce. 'In the absence of the federal government continuing to push development of clean firm resources, we are thinking about what the state can do,' she said. Big data centers could also cover at least some of the cost of new transmission infrastructure needed to serve them, easing the burden on existing ratepayers, Hentges added. But the state needs to ensure Minnesota data centers fully decarbonize their operations over time, including onsite backup generators that today generally run on natural gas or diesel, Cherne-Hendrick said. It also needs to push data centers to pay into state-administered equity programs facing sharp federal funding cuts, like the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, she said. Also no, Long said, despite the Trump administration's claims to the contrary. Last month, Trump invoked an obscure law to order a Michigan coal plant to operate past its planned May 31 retirement date. Moniz, the former U.S. Energy Secretary, asked whether he could do the same in another Midwestern state committed to transitioning off coal. Xcel is 'obviously paying a lot of attention' to the issue but isn't changing its coal retirement plans, which have been in the works for years and won't affect system reliability, Long said. He allowed that Minnesota will need gas power plants for many years, though they'll increasingly serve as backup for renewables, nuclear and long-duration batteries. Xcel plans to build a new 'hydrogen-capable' gas plant in southwestern Minnesota that will likely operate past 2040. Building new wind, solar and battery plants has been cheaper than running existing coal plants for years, in part because renewable power requires far less labor to operate and maintain. Fowler said that's a challenge for unions like LIUNA, whose work in the power sector increasingly focuses on facilities that more or less run themselves. And LIUNA members are uneasy about the future. 'Our job is to work ourselves out of a job — we build something and then move onto the next project,' he said. A February settlement between Xcel and Minnesota's utility regulator pushes the utility to expand training opportunities for underrepresented populations and work with labor on workforce transitions at retiring power plants. The training partnership has already produced around 100 graduates who can now work on new power plant or data center construction projects, Fowler said. 'There are real benefits the state will see from … having citizens who feel like their job is waiting out there,' he said. Wind and solar development is a double-edged sword for rural communities, where income-earning opportunities for landowners clash with concerns about removing prime farmland from production, said Anne Schwagerl, vice president with Minnesota Farmers Union. To demystify the issue and strengthen members' negotiating position with power developers, Minnesota Farmers Union plans to update its five-year-old 'farmers' guide' to renewable energy. But the best way to ensure durable rural support for clean energy is to give farm communities more skin in the game, Schwagerl said. Right now, for example, conglomerates barge most of the fertilizer used on Minnesota farms up the Mississippi River from massive factories on the Gulf Coast. Minnesota Farmers Union wants to see more local production, ideally led by rural cooperatives using excess wind power with support from federal and state green fertilizer grants, Schwagerl said. 'Our thinking is that the green transition is happening,' she said. 'We're seeing it in agriculture as in energy, and it would be a big bummer to us if it ended up being owned by the same multinational megacorporations.'
CBS News
a day ago
- CBS News
Residents in Colorado's Elbert County fight Xcel Energy over transmission line running through their properties
As Colorado's energy infrastructure ages, Xcel Energy is aiming to build 550 miles of new transmission lines to accommodate the grid and Colorado's continuous growth. However, residents in Elbert County are resisting efforts from Xcel's proposition, as a portion of the project is intended to travel through the county, which they say will disrupt their way of life. Wednesday night, the Planning Commission voted to recommend denying Xcel's application to the Board of County Commissioners at the end of the month. Until then, Xcel has begun eminent domain initiatives as well as having already acquired nearly 50% of the land needed for the project voluntarily. Tuesday night at the county fairgrounds in Kiowa, Xcel presented their application to the Planning Commission. It went so long, it spilled over to Wednesday night. The Elbert County Staff of Community Development and Services deemed the application incomplete for not submitting more detail about wildfire protection, and recommended to the Planning Commission to deny the application, which they did. Route of Segment 5 The entire Power Pathway project consists of five segments, with Segments 2 and 3 completed and Segment 1 under construction. Xcel's $1.7 billion double-circuit 345-kilovolt electric transmission line will be used to increase reliability across Colorado. "If we lose one of our transmission segments, we have the ability to route electricity around the state," Andrew Holder, the Xcel Community Relations Director, told the commission during Tuesday's meeting. Xcel Energy's proposed line, Segment 5. CBS Colorado But for years, Xcel and those directly impacted or simply living in Elbert County have been at odds over the avenue of Segment 5. "The proposed route selected in Elbert County... is the least impactful compared to other route alternatives evaluated," said the Siting and Land Rights Manager, Jennifer Chester, in her presentation for Xcel to the Planning Commission. "A lot of folks are ranchers. It's our charge to take care of this land where we live," says Kerry Jiblits, who lives in Elbert County. Jiblits is a board member for the Elbert County Environmental Alliance (ECEA) with more than 400 people on its mailing list. While the transmission line isn't going through her property, Elbert County is her home. She "moved here for a reason," she says. The group formed to resist projects that harm the environment and wildlife in the area, Jiblits tells CBS Colorado. They are environmentalists who are all in for renewables. "We're not against the project, we're against this route." Xcel on the other hand, is looking to unlock solar and wind power potential with all that open space on the Eastern Plains. The utility company told CBS Colorado in a statement in part, "We have collaborated with the Elbert County community for four years, addressing questions, concerns and acquiring land rights voluntarily. We adjusted the project's location by 50 miles to accommodate community wishes while keeping project costs low for our customers." Those who participated in Tuesday's public comment say otherwise. "There was not one single person who spoke in favor of Xcel other than the Xcel representatives," Jiblits tells CBS Colorado. She and others in ECEA have met with Xcel many times and even with the president of Xcel Energy-Colorado, Robert Kenney. "Their idea of collaboration is to tell you that this is what [they're] going to do. They have not worked with us in the least." Risk of wildfire But the risk of wildfire is why the Community Development and Services staff in its presentation Tuesday recommended that denial. "The applicant has not submitted the request level of detail of information for proof of fire protection or risk associated with fire behavior." "Wildfire is a huge concern out here," says Jiblits. The Magic Dog fire last October near CO-86 used aerial firefighters, Jiblits tells CBS Colorado. The water came from a body that is adjacent to the proposed Segment 5 route. "They scooped water out of a pond nearby. The transmission lines will be going right next to that pond now. How are they going to be able to access that water?" CBS Colorado reached out to Elizabeth Fire Rescue about how they plan to work around the line in the future, but have not heard back. Elbert County fire districts cover at least 700 square miles and firefighters in the area are mostly volunteer. There's a way to avoid the risk. According to a 2021 study by Pacific Gas & Electric Co., the utility company is taking on the ambitious goal of burying 10,000 miles of above-ground electric distribution power lines in high-risk wildfire areas, which is called undergrounding. Even though PG&E has logistical and technical challenges awaiting it, as well as a near $20 billion price tag, it's possible and currently happening. The first speaker at Tuesday's meeting, Mike Walker of Elizabeth, said, "Xcel says it costs too much to bury the lines." What's in it for Elbert County? "There's no benefit. The power is for the Denver metro area," says Jiblits. Xcel told CBS Colorado, "While we do not provide electric service to Elbert County residents, the Pathway project will provide important tax revenue benefiting the county, cities, fire and school districts." Although Jiblits, and many in the county, aren't buying it. "The taxes that we will get from this project, will be offset by the money we lose in decreased property values and property valuations," says Jiblits. On its website, Xcel says they've used a third-party real estate appraiser analysis, and the transmission line will not impact property vales. Additionally, Holder said on Tuesday that Xcel will pay a 1.26% tax on its new facilities, on top of a $2.5 million project impact fee. "Their attitude is, 'We're going to do what we want. What you say doesn't matter.' They're just going through and checking boxes," Jiblits says. Eminent domain "There were several people who wanted to speak," Jiblits says about Tuesday night's meeting, "but who were unable to speak because of the ongoing litigation." That is eminent domain proceedings. Xcel told CBS Colorado partly, "We remain committed to making every effort to reach a fair and reasonable settlement, but when negotiations are unsuccessful, we have to exercise our eminent domain authority." Although alternate lines have been offered, Segment 5 is moving ahead as proposed. Jiblits says, with larger acreage farther east, families won't be as impacted from the project. "There are already rights of way out there that they could follow and use. They don't need to take our land for their project." Xcel and Elbert County residents will have to wait more than two weeks for a vote from the Board of Commissioners on June 24.
