A Colorado consumer advocacy group is pushing back against the possibility that Xcel Energy customers — including those in the Pueblo and Southern Colorado region — could be required to pay for repairs and replacement power costs stemming from a year-long outage at a major coal-fired plant.
Xcel was forced to shut down Comanche 3 on Aug. 12 of last year after major damage to one of the plant's turbines. The company must now approach the Colorado Public Utilities Commission with a plan to pay for repairs and any power gaps caused by the outage — a plan that could include requesting customer rate increases.
The nonprofit Colorado Public Interest Research Group, known as CoPIRG, is pushing back on that possibility, pointing to a history of reliability problems at the plant and saying Comanche 3 experienced more than 700 days of unplanned shutdowns between 2010 and 2021.
"There's enough track record to demonstrate that this is a problematic source of power, and we should not have to pay for the repair costs or the consequences of having it down for so long," the group's executive director said. He said the decision about who pays has not yet been made, but noted that costs are continuing to accumulate.
He said Xcel has several options, including drawing on insurance coverage or absorbing the costs themselves, but CoPIRG is concerned the company may seek to pass those costs to ratepayers. "We want to make sure that the PUC denies any efforts to try to charge customers for this reliably unreliable power plant," he said.
The group noted that the Public Utilities Commission is the key decision-maker, accepts public comments, and said it is not too late for customers to weigh in before a final determination is made.
In a statement, Xcel Energy pushed back on the framing, saying the return-to-service timeline has slipped but that existing agreements limit customer exposure to capital repair costs. The company said it is focused on safely returning Comanche 3 back online and that, due to equipment availability delays within the supply chain outside of the company's control, the anticipated return-to-service date has been adjusted. Xcel also said that in the current electric rate case settlement agreement before the PUC, capital costs of repairs are not a part of customer bills, and that any future cost recovery proposals would be subject to review and approval by the commission.
The company said it will update the PUC on Aug. 22. There is no hard deadline for when Xcel must appear before the commission, but the PUC will have to make a decision before any costs are assigned — whether to Xcel or its customers.
How the commission rules on cost allocation, and whether Xcel's Aug. 22 update includes a revised restart date, will be the next key developments to watch in this case.