PUC grants 6 entities’ requests to intervene in Boulder municipalization case

DENVER — Despite reservations, the three-member Colorado Public Utilities Commission on Wednesday morning agreed unanimously to allow a group of Boulder County residents intervenor status in the case of the city of Boulder’s application to create a municipal electric utility.

The approval came after a brief discussion that included commissioner Pam Patton expressing feelings that the group Leave BoCo Out had not supplied information that the PUC asked for and that the group’s interests are already being represented by the PUC itself.

Before Leave BoCo Out’s approval, the PUC quickly approved intervenor status requests from Climax Molybdenum Co., IBM Corp., the University of Colorado, the Boulder Chamber and United Power without any discussion.

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The right to intervene allows parties access to all information in Boulder’s municipalization case before the PUC, as well as the rights to file evidence and appeal PUC decisions.

The city last year had filed a condemnation case in Boulder district court to acquire all of the Xcel Energy equipment both within and outside city limits that is necessary to create a municipal electric utility and serve its residents. But despite the fact that the city was not seeking to acquire from Xcel as customers any county residents outside the city limits, the court ruled that the PUC retained jurisdiction over Boulder’s plans because some of the equipment being acquired ultimately serves some of those county residents.

Boulder subsequently filed its application with the PUC in July of this year for approval of its municipalization plan, including which assets the city would acquire and a plan for interconnection with Xcel’s system. Xcel has filed a motion to dismiss the case. Both the city of Boulder and intervenors have until Friday to respond to Xcel’s motion.

The PUC had previously granted intervenor status to Xcel, the Colorado Office of Consumer Counsel, PUC staff and the Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association.

On Wednesday, PUC staff asserted before the commissioners that IBM, CU, the Chamber, Climax and United all had unique interests that would not be represented in the case by anyone else. The city had not opposed any of the requests.

Leave BoCo Out officials had contended that they had their own distinct interest that could not be adequately represented by the Office of Consumer Counsel because that office must represent the interests of all Xcel ratepayers. Under Boulder’s plan, about 7,200 county residents who live outside the city limits would be serviced by equipment the city acquires, with Xcel essentially buying the power serving those customers from the city and then billing those customers. Leave BoCo Out members have asserted that the arrangement leaves them without a voice or a vote on matters relating to the city’s municipal utility that would ultimately be responsible for the reliability of their service and upgrades to the equipment serving them.

But the commissioners earlier this month had requested that Leave BoCo Out supply additional information, including the number of Xcel customers that belong to the group and the rate classes in which they belong, to help them determine whether the group should be allowed intervenor status.

Leave BoCo Out officials responded with a filing last week that stated the group, which has an eight-member board of directors of affected residents, has received 30 letters, representing 50 residents, in support of the organization’s participation in Boulder’s municipalization case. Patton on Wednesday said that didn’t answer the PUC’s questions, and she stated that the district court’s decision itself to refer the case to the PUC showed that the county residents in question were already being represented by the PUC.

“I believe these people are very well represented, and I further believe Leave BoCo Out ignored our requests,” Patton said. She added her notion that the overall decision on Boulder’s application wouldn’t hinge on “these particular people. It’s going to be over big substantive issues.”

Nonetheless, all three commissioners agreed that the fact that the city didn’t opposed Leave BoCo Out’s request to intervene was a major reason to approve it. Commissioner Joshua Epel agreed with Patton’s concerns about the substance of Leave BoCo Out’s response to the PUC’s request for more information, but did believe the group has shown that it has been disenfranchised by the city’s municipalization attempt.

“My inclination is to let them in,” Epel said.