Committee backs study and reporting requirements to assess Colorado grid resiliency against geomagnetic storms and EMPs

Representative de Graaf presented House Bill 12-60, which he described as a measure to study and improve Colorado’s electrical generation and distribution resiliency against geomagnetic disturbances, solar storms and related electromagnetic pulse (EMP) risks. "It is better to be prepared than to caught unaware," the sponsor told the committee while outlining the bill’s purpose and the EMP task force recommendations that informed it.

The bill directs utilities and the state’s regulatory process to assess the ability of the electric system and critical infrastructure to withstand and recover from severe geomagnetic storms and EMP-like events. Sponsors framed the measure as a study and reporting requirement that would ask entities to evaluate transformer and system vulnerabilities and to identify mitigation steps and timelines for restoration under different severity scenarios. Several sponsor amendments narrowed the bill’s language to focus explicitly on geomagnetic and EMP threats and to rely on utilities and their technical expertise to provide system-specific reports to the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) rather than requiring the PUC to conduct extensive field inspections.

Supporters included former and current resilience and security experts who told the committee that geomagnetic disturbances can induce currents in long conductors and damage large transformers, creating long-duration outages. Glenn Rhodes, national executive director of the Task Force National Homeland Security, and Maria Sumnich, national director of cybersecurity for the EMP Task Force, urged action and said Colorado should assess vulnerabilities now. Sumnich testified that water and wastewater systems are particularly dependent on reliable electricity and that prolonged outages could cause public-health emergencies.

The Colorado Energy Office (CEO) testified in opposition, urging caution. Keith Hay, senior director of policy at the Colorado Energy Office, said the office recognizes grid resilience as important and has produced a microgrid roadmap, but opposed HB 12-60 as drafted because it would require extensive study and rulemaking that the PUC lacks staff to carry out and because similar standards and technologies are being considered at the federal level. "Given the resources of the Public Utilities Commission and the work that's being done at the federal level, this is not a bill that we need to have here in Colorado at this point in time," Hay told the committee.

Committee members adopted sponsor amendments that removed broader or unrelated language, clarified that utilities should provide the technical reports, and placed the work in a legislative framework rather than asking the PUC to adopt all rules immediately. Sponsors and several members noted potential federal funding sources and that further coordination with agencies including FERC, NERC and DHS would be appropriate for standards and funding.

After debate, Representative Brown moved the bill to the Finance Committee with a favorable recommendation; the committee approved the motion on roll call. The transcript records a final committee tally of 10 yes, 2 no and 1 excused.

What was debated: witnesses and sponsors discussed historical events (the 1859 Carrington event, the 1989 Quebec outage) and technical classifications used by space-weather and grid experts. The hearing also included discussion about inverter supply-chains, concerns about possible hardware backdoors in imported transformers, and the interaction of microgrids with the bulk power system. The Energy Office warned the committee that retrofitting or hardening systems against EMPs or geomagnetic storms can be costly and that some protective steps may be best coordinated nationally.

Next steps: HB 12-60 was sent to the Finance Committee as amended. Sponsors said they would continue tailoring legislative language to balance the PUC’s capacity, utility reporting responsibilities and federal coordination.