PUC hears public comment on Xcel’s $1.9 billion wildfire-mitigation plan and PSPS proposal

The Colorado Public Utilities Commission (PUC) on Feb. 6 took public comment on the Public Service Company of Colorado’s (Xcel Energy) proposed 2025–2027 wildfire mitigation plan, its public safety power shutoff (PSPS) procedures and a proposed $1.9 billion wildfire mitigation adjustment rider the company would recover through customer bills.

Director White, a PUC staff member who opened the hearing, summarized the filing and told attendees the company grouped its proposals into four categories: situational awareness, system resiliency, operational mitigation and customer support. She said the company projects the application’s total budget at approximately $1,900,000,000 and estimates a fully approved rider would raise residential customer bills by about $9 per month. The docket is 24A-0296E; staff said the matter is set for hearing in early May and commissioners expect to deliberate and likely issue a decision in August.

Why it matters: The proposal would fund a broad set of wildfire risk measures and changes to grid operations that can affect outages, public-safety shutoffs and the pace and cost of power restoration across Xcel’s Colorado service area.

Substantive elements of the plan described by staff include: expanded situational-awareness tools such as meteorological and software systems and increased deployment of AI-based cameras; system-resiliency investments including targeted transmission upgrades and some undergrounding of lines; operational mitigations such as expanded use of PSPS and adjusted protection settings for line equipment; and customer-support actions including enhanced outreach to customers with medical or other critical energy needs.

Public commenters praised some aspects of the filing and pressed the company and the PUC for specific changes. Dan Larson, who said he lives in Wheat Ridge and was speaking for his homeowners association board, described the April 2024 wind event that left his neighborhood without power for about 36 hours. "Our power was out for about 36 hours," Larson said, and he urged shorter pole-inspection cycles and greater use of vegetation management and drone inspections to reduce outages and downed lines in suburban rights-of-way. He noted Xcel’s plan shortens distribution pole inspections to a 10-year cycle from a 12-year cycle and suggested reducing the cycle further to about eight years.

Don Cameron, a Golden city councilor, said the plan is "impressive in the scope and detail" but called several elements weak, including the pace of undergrounding, PSPS communications and the rebate structure for backup power for high-need customers. "This part of the program needs to be greatly enhanced," Cameron said of proposed rebates and assistance, recommending options such as forgivable loans, grants, loaner equipment and nonprofit partnerships to help low-income residents and renters who may need backup power.

Nathan Whittington, Jefferson County’s emergency manager, urged better operational coordination between Xcel and local emergency-management centers. "We are not able at the county level to see their grids," Whittington said, describing Xcel’s situational-data tools and AI-camera feeds as proprietary and unavailable to county emergency operations centers. He asked for a shared platform or data-sharing arrangement that would allow local officials to know in advance how many residents with medical or functional needs could be affected by a PSPS and to receive consolidated situational awareness during incidents. Whittington also recommended using a standardized critical-infrastructure taxonomy, such as the federal CISA sectors, to avoid duplicative reporting.

Another commenter, a Boulder resident, said he had difficulty locating the full wildfire-mitigation plan in the PUC docket and flagged figures he intends to review: the company’s statement that about 24,500 miles of transmission lines exist and roughly 2,800 miles were inspected in the last year (about an 11% inspection rate), and that the proposal would underground about 50 miles of lines going forward. A PUC staff member and Commissioner Tom Plant later explained where the core documents are posted in the docket (HearingExhibit101AttachmentAZS-1 for the wildfire-mitigation plan and HearingExhibit117 for the PSPS plan) and on the PUC website’s key-issues page.

Other topics commenters raised included the number and placement of AI cameras (one commenter said a small base number was scheduled to be tripled), questions about how PSPS decisions are balanced with keeping lines energized under sensitive settings, and concerns about whether notifications reach renters and other household members beyond bill payers. Several commenters said communications after the April event were inadequate and urged improved proactive notice of PSPS events.

Next steps: PUC staff noted two additional public hearings on the docket (March 13, 9–11 a.m., and April 29, 4–6 p.m.), a commissioners’ information meeting Feb. 20 and the early-May evidentiary hearing. The PUC accepted written comments to the docket 24A-0296E via its e-filing system or online comment form. Commissioners said comments received in any form are part of the record and will be considered before a commission decision expected in August.

Community officials and emergency managers asked the PUC to consider whether regulatory direction on data-sharing, notification processes for renters and enhanced support for medically dependent customers should be included in any final order. Those requests — and Xcel’s cost and scope numbers — are now part of the record the commissioners will weigh before deciding whether and how to approve the proposed plan and the proposed cost-recovery rider.