Newsmakers Feb. 14-27: Boulder, Xcel feud over system repair

If there was any question over whether emotions were running high over Boulder’s municipalization debate, the city answered that by leveling some serious accusations at Xcel Energy Inc. in February.

That’s when city officials alleged that they believed the electric company was allowing its distribution system to fall into disrepair because of the city’s pending attempt to create a municipal electric utility.

Xcel fired back that the accusations were baseless and that countered that a solution proposed by the city to build a new distribution line serving south Boulder’s Shanahan Ridge neighborhood was “inferior from a basic engineering and practical standpoint.”

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The argument stemmed from a city press release outlining an agreement between the city and Xcel to install the new line to Shanahan Ridge beneath Boulder-owned open space. The work was necessary due to 2013flood damage to a line serving the neighborhood.

But the city also made clear that it had lobbied for a different solution, one that would have run a feeder out of the substation near the National Center for Atmospheric Research, running beneath sidewalks and other pavement along easements.

Instead the city agreed to allow Xcel to bore beneath open space to route the new portion of the old line from the Eldorado Springs substation. The damaged line had previously run through some adjacent private property to which Xcel no longer could gain access.

Xcel argued that the city’s solution would have required double the wire distance and cost four times as much, while the city maintained that Xcel’s solution did little to mitigate future flood risks.

UPDATE

Xcel moved forward with making the repairs and rerouting the line through the city’s open space. But the municipalization debate has gone far beyond trading barbs over system repairs. Three lawsuits are briefed and pending a judge’s decisions in district court.

First, Boulder is appealing a ruling by the Public Utilities Commission that the city must clear its municipalization plan with the commission before filing a condemnation suit. As Boulder filed its condemnation suit to acquire Xcel’s distribution system anyway, Xcel moved to dismiss that suit, saying the court didn’t have jurisdiction without the PUC first approving Boulder’s plan. Finally, Xcel filed a suit against the city, saying city council did not meet city charter requirements for forming its own utility.

Those are in addition to a petition filed by Xcel requesting that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission declare that the city must seek the regulators’ approval to acquire the high-voltage transmission loop that serves the city.