DENVER—State regulators have approved Xcel Energy’s plan to meet energy demands through 2015 by increasing the power it gets from renewable sources and stepping up conservation and efficiency.
The state Public Utilities Commission’s decision issued Friday said the plan advances Gov. Bill Ritter’s goal of reducing carbon emissions while ensuring an adequate supply of energy at the lowest prices possible.
The plan calls for closing two older, coal-fired power plants. Minneapolis-based Xcel, the state’s largest electric utility, says it will replace one with a natural gas plant.
“We’re pleased. It looks like the commission affirmed most of our resource plan,” Xcel spokesman Joe Fuentes said.
The utility has offered to return to the PUC next year to outline its progress, Fuentes said.
The plan drew praise from environmental groups, some of which battled Xcel in 2004 over a ballot proposal that made Coloradans the first voters nationwide to require utilities to get some of their power from renewable sources.
“With this electric resource plan, Xcel Energy has taken a clear leadership role among the nation’s utilities and should be congratulated for its initiative,” said Craig Cox of the Interwest Energy Alliance, a trade and renewable energy advocacy group.
John Nielsen of Western Resource Advocates, a Boulder-based environmental group, said the PUC’s decision clears the way for Xcel to implement “what is arguably the most innovative utility resource plan” in the country.
The plan calls for adding at least 1,000 megawatts power from renewable energy, including at least 800 megawatts of wind power. The company is on pace to get 20 percent of its power in Colorado from renewable energy sources by 2015, five years ahead of the mandatory deadline of 2020.
Amendment 37, passed by voters in 2004, required Colorado’s largest utilities to get 10 percent of their electricity from renewable energy sources, such as wind and solar, by 2015. Xcel and other utilities fought the initiative, but Xcel later said the rules implementing the law addressed its concerns about customers’ costs.
This year, the Legislature boosted the renewable energy requirement to 20 percent by 2020. Ritter directed state health officials to write regulations to match that goal.
Xcel’s plan outlines saving energy by improving energy efficiency and encouraging customers to conserve.
The company has said it plans to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 1.4 million tons each year by shutting down older coal-burning generating units at Denver’s Arapahoe Generating Station and the Cameo Generating Station east of Grand Junction. The Denver coal-burning units will be replaced by natural gas units.
“The proposal to retire two of its least efficient coal plants marks a turning point in the supply of electricity in Colorado,” the PUC wrote in its 132-page decision on Xcel’s plan.
The commission also lauded the company for its plans to curtail energy demand and increase the amount of power from renewable energy sources on its system.
