Xcel Says It Can’t Shut Down its Coal Plants by 2030. Believe Them.
Xcel Energy’s March 2 filing with the Colorado Public Utilities Commission (PUC) reads like a company trying to get ahead of a crisis. On paper, it might be just a simple status update about Comanche Unit 3, a coal-fired plant near Pueblo, which is undergoing repairs. Instead, Xcel sounds the alarm about grid reliability. According […]
The Big Short(fall): Colorado’s Upcoming Power Plant Closures and Planned Replacements
By Ethan Cornell* Introduction The data summarizing planned generation closures in Colorado signals a rapid and profound infrastructural transformation. The schedule details the planned retirement of 10 major coal-fired units between 2025 and 2031, collectively representing a loss of nearly 4,200 megawatts (MW) of nameplate capacity. The primary policy question this raises is whether the […]
