Who is the PUC Listening To?
Who they talk to is a major indicator
I love the Colorado Open Records laws. One of them is that PUC members need to make their calendar public. You can see them for yourself here. So let’s look at 2024 and see what we find…
Well first off Commissioners Gilman & Plant met with almost no one. They both met with Antora Energy.1 And Commissioner Gilman met with two NGOs. And that’s it. To me this is a major sign that they’re captive to the PUC and Chairman Blank - for two reasons. First, if they’re not discussing the issues they are voting on with anyone, how are they able to make informed decisions.
An even bigger signal is this likely signifies that Xcel, Pivot Energy, the Governor’s office, the NGOs, assumes there’s no value in discussing any issues with them. Chairman Blank had 67 meetings over 2024.2 So 5½/month. And none of those individuals meeting with Chairman Blank, many of them numerous times, saw any value in talking to the other two.
Ok, so the PUC is Chairman Blank. And I listened in for ~ an hour to a recent meeting of theirs and the part I heard he basically said his part, said what he thought they should do, and the other two agreed. I’m hoping at times there’s discussion between them but I sure didn’t hear any.
Who is Chairman Blank Listening To?
Ok, so I went in and totaled up who Chairman Blank discussed PUC business with. These numbers are greater than 67 because some meetings had people from several of these categories.
The various utilities and various people in the state administration meeting with him twice a month - that makes sense. Xcel and the Colorado Energy Office were the most common, again as expected. But there were a number of smaller companies and non energy administrative offices that had a meeting or two. So the utilities they regulate and the state government are getting the talking time they should.
Same for the RSOs, other state PUCs, energy offices, etc. I wish Chairman Blank talked to them more. Because he’ll hear ideas outside of what the Colorado Energy echo chamber is discussing.
The individuals are the kind of conversations an individual making decisions about our energy should have. Former PUC members, people who’s opinion they respect, etc. The sad thing here is Gilman and Plant don’t even have that.
Two of the industry companies, both data centers, makes sense to talk to them. Although this gets into an area of policy that should probably be discussed more. Do we want to encourage data centers here?3 They suck up a ton of energy and once built they have few jobs, mostly security guards.4
The other 7 Industry meetings were with Pivot Energy. Respect to the sales team at Pivot - you managed to get meetings with the most critical person in Colorado for your business ~ every other month. Why Chairman Blank favors them over all the other solar companies - no idea.
Two of the NGO meetings were with WRA5 and those meetings, based on the description, appear to be substantive. Three meetings with him in 2023 too. So the WRA clearly gets to present their thoughts regularly to the Chairman.
And out of all the conversations Chairman Blank has had with all these various people, there is one, only one, I found that discussed nuclear. That is the PIESAC6 that he met with once.
And zero as best as I can tell that would have discussed the incredible expense of the batteries if we take our VRE approach any further. Now who knows, maybe in his numerous conversations with Xcel they have brought up how it would skyrocket rates. But I could not find anything.
In Conclusion
I worry that the PUC has drunk the Kool-Aid on wind + solar + pixie dust. I presented my concerns to the PUC but I don’t think it did any good as there was no response from them.
It also bothers me that we have three commissioners on the PUC for a reason - to have three diverse knowledgeable people look at the facts and discuss them from three distinct points of view. No discussion makes for a fast & pleasant meeting. But it doesn’t serve the state or the rate payers well.
Who knows, maybe the PUC is leaving decisions to Xcel, TriState, & BlackHills and they’ll just respond yes/no to the requests from the utilities. But if so, why all the meetings with Pivot Energy?
A thermal battery company - which is important.
Chairman Blank did not meet with Antora Energy. I feel bad for Antora, so unimportant they are the one company to be foisted off on the other commissioners.
Yes we want some so that users in Colorado get a quick response on the Internet. The question is do we want to invite giant datacenters to fill parts of the Eastern plains that require GW of power?
I don’t have an opinion on if we should. But I do think the state should discuss this and decide.
Good stuff. I think you ought to forward this column to a few people ... including
* Governor Polis
* legislative leaders in both chambers
* the PUC
* whoever you might know involved with news at The Colorado Sun, CPR, and Denver TV stations. Kyle Clark? I'm betting Tony Kovaleski and Jaclyn Allen at Denver7 would be interested.
This: "Who knows, maybe the PUC is leaving decisions to Xcel, TriState, & Black Hills and they’ll just respond yes/no to the requests from the utilities."
...is basically what happens. The PUC has ~100 employees. Xcel has roughly 10x that number associated with rates, regulatory affairs, legislative, etc. The PUC is a guardrail on the utilities plans, not a guide.