Regulators say they need more time to review Xcel Energy's complex and expensive wildfire plan.

State regulators pushed back the deadline to approve Xcel Energy’s $1.9 billion wildfire mitigation plan, saying the sprawling proposal could create new risks if not carefully examined.

In June, Xcel Energy filed a massive plan with the Public Utilities Commission detailing how it plans to improve its system and operations to reduce the likelihood of its power lines and other equipment sparking a wildfire.

Xcel Energy’s 2025-2027 safety proposal covers nearly twice the geographic area and would cost four times as much as its existing wildfire plan starting in 2020.

“We have a clear goal: that no catastrophic wildfires in Colorado are started by our assets,” company President Robert S. Kenney wrote in a June letter to state utility commissioners. ‘State.

Xcel Energy, the state’s largest utility, currently faces at least 300 lawsuits for its alleged role in the Marshall Fire, as well as other lawsuits accusing its electrical equipment of starting the larger blaze of Texas forest.

Xcel Energy’s plan explains how it will notify its customers when it preemptively shuts off power to reduce the risk of wildfires, known as a “public safety power shutoff.” In April, Xcel surprised many customers by shutting off power to about 55,000 people in the northern Front Range due to high winds — the first precautionary power outage ever triggered in Colorado.

Regulators generally have 250 days to review a utility’s wildfire safety plan, ask questions and seek additional information through a series of hearings and public comments. In that case, Paul Gomez, a lawyer with the Colorado attorney general’s office who is advising the commission, said “extraordinary circumstances” meant regulators needed more time to review the plan.

“The request currently before the commission involves extraordinary levels of complexity,” Gomez said.

In a statement to CPR News, an Xcel Energy spokesperson said they understood regulators needed more time to review the plan, but cautioned that “the frequency and magnitude of the wildfire threat continues to grow.”

The commission now has until August 2025 to decide on Xcel Energy’s proposal.

Major upgrades billed back to customers

Xcel Energy and other utilities are taking steps to reduce the risks of their operations sparking wildfires, including clearing dry vegetation around power lines. Wildfire mitigation plans consider more costly improvements, like burying power lines. Because this work can then be billed back to Colorado customers, it requires approval from regulators.

Colorado has seen other large, destructive and deadly wildfires since Xcel Energy filed its 2020 plan, including the Cameron Peak and East Troublesome fires. The risk of wildfires is expected to increase with climate change, and some studies suggest that Colorado could see a 400% increase in very large wildfires by 2050.

A bulldozer drives along a perimeter near the Cameron Peak fire west of Fort Collins.

Xcel Energy’s proposal would place weather stations near power lines to collect real-time fire risk data, triple the number of AI-powered cameras to detect fires, expand the use of drones to inspect equipment and bury power lines. The company also plans to hire at least 31 employees for a new wildfire risk team.

To pay for these costs, Xcel Energy projects that an average customer’s bill would increase by about $8.88 per month by the end of 2027. Xcel Energy said it would evaluate these costs twice a year.

The utility’s safety power shutoff plan is one of the most controversial parts of the proposal. It explains how Xcel Energy would notify the public when it was preparing to shut off power. Regulators criticized the company for poorly communicating and coordinating its first-ever shutdown.

Brad Heap, the owner of SALT restaurant in Boulder, said his business lost $12,000 in revenue during a Saturday night power outage in August, according to a public comment.

“They will make excuses, but ultimately communicating would help,” he wrote.

Regulators said the combination of costly improvements, potential customer rate increases and finding a way to safely cut off power meant they needed more time to get the opinions of government agencies and the public.

But Xcel Energy representatives pushed back the new timetable, saying the delay could hurt its bottom line.

“Investors view the risk of wildfires as a major concern,” Kenney, Xcel’s chairman, wrote in a letter. “A delay in approving the plan would signal a lack of urgency or concern on the part of the Commission. »