Agreement with Xcel Energy on SB 100 Transmission
Development and Stakeholder Participation Process
26 February 2008
Interwest, working together with Xcel Energy and
various other parties, reached a
settlement agreement on
22 February that dramatically invigorates the SB 100
transmission development implementation process, which
we had attacked as being “wholly inadequate.” This
agreement sets out a detailed timetable that Xcel will
follow in conducting new (and more frequent)
stakeholder-driven transmission study groups,
culminating next March with the filing of new CPCN
applications for transmission necessary for generation
resources “reasonably likely to come online by 2015” in
all four of its currently designated energy resource
zones.
For years, Interwest has worked to address Colorado’s
severe transmission deficiencies. We participated in a
state 2006 Transmission Task Force (one of whose
recommendations included legislation similar to SB 100)
and then worked closely with Xcel Energy and many other
stakeholder parties in drafting SB 100 itself in the
2007 legislative session. SB 100,
signed into law last
March, provides current cost recovery for investor-owned
utility transmission investments to
transmission-constrained “energy resource zones”
throughout the state. These specific resource zones and
transmission deficiencies are identified in biennial
reports to be filed with the Colorado PUC, starting in
October 2007.
Despite Xcel’s strong support for the new law and its
professed enthusiasm for developing new transmission for
renewable energy projects, we were unhappy with its
first SB 100 report, filed with the PUC on 31 October.
We expressed our concerns in
comments and
reply comments
filed with the Colorado PUC. Essentially, we argued that Xcel’s
SB 100 plan was wholly inadequate in addressing the
severe transmission constraints hindering new renewable
energy development in Colorado, and we called for much
more aggressive identification of resource-rich energy
resource zones, recommending that the highly detailed
“Generation Development Areas” in the SB 91 Task Force’s
report be substituted for Xcel’s large and vaguely
defined zones.
Happily, in this agreement and in recent public
statements, Xcel has indicated its willingness to use
the highly detailed
SB 91 Task Force maps to guide its
future work in this effort. This important task force
report found eight specific “Generation Development
Areas” (“GDAs”) in Colorado with a combined 96GW of wind
capacity, and two GDAs with a combined 26GW solar
capacity.
This SB 100 transmission agreement takes the form of
a side letter filed by Xcel with the Colorado PUC as
part of the company’s Energy Resource Plan (Docket No.
07A-447E), in which we are intervening. This side letter
resulted from settlement negotiations on a related
docket (the Pawnee-Smoky Hill Docket), in which we
endorse the Pawnee-Smoky Hill 345kV upgrade (which
itself will enable at least 500MW of new capacity from
northeastern Colorado by 2013) in return for Xcel
agreeing to this more-aggressive SB 100 implementation
timetable.
The new SB 100 stakeholder process kicks off on March
4th in Denver, and all interested stakeholders should
consider taking part in this meeting. For more details
on this meeting, and on other aspects of SB 100, visit
Interwest’s SB 100 page.
This agreement could not have happened without Interwest’s
attorney, Ron Lehr, for his vision in advancing this
timetable and for seeing it through the settlement
process. This agreement puts us on the right track to
the effective and proper implementation of SB 100,
making it an important building block in a strong
interstate transmission network connecting Colorado with
neighboring states and markets throughout the
southwestern U.S.
Update: 4 May 2009: Interwest
motion to enforce SB 100 settlement agreement
18 May 2009: Xcel Energy's
reply motion disputing Interwest's arguments on
enforcing settlement Colorado PUC denied Interwest's
motion on 27 May 2009. Interwest will continue to
pursue this matter aggressively in all appropriate
venues.
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