Commission staff on Nov. 26 recommended allowing Public Service Company of Colorado’s advice letter adding three performance incentive mechanisms (PIMs) for the Pawnee generating facility to go into effect by operation of law; commissioners agreed.

Erin O'Neil of the commission’s fixed‑utility staff said Public Service filed the advice letter Oct. 30 to revise its energy commodity adjustment (ECA) tariff to reflect three PIMs tied to the Pawnee conversion to natural gas. O'Neil said the filing implements obligations from decision R240194 in proceeding 22A0563E and makes no immediate change to customer rates because PIM results are not yet known. “The first is a cost to construct PIM with an $80,000,000 baseline and a hard cap at 88,000,000,” O'Neil said, and described a construction‑timing PIM with an expected in‑service date of Jan. 1, 2026 that carries daily penalties for delay, and a unit efficiency (heat‑rate) PIM with methodology filed into the earlier proceeding.

O'Neil said staff reviewed the proposed tariff language and confirmed it is consistent with decision R240194, and staff recommended the advice letter be allowed to go into effect by operation of law. Commissioners expressed support and said the filing could be implemented by operation of law; no rate change was proposed at this time and any PIM earnings impacts would be reconciled and either credited to or charged to retail electric customers through quarterly ECA filings amortized over 10 years, per the filing.

The transcript excerpt includes parties’ references to prior proceeding numbers and settlement terms; staff said parties had conferred on baseline methodology and that neither staff nor the Utility Consumer Advocate contested the unit efficiency PIM baseline in the referenced filing.