NERC 2026 State of Reliability Bears Warnings for Colorado
The North American Electric Reliability Corporation’s (NERC) 2026 State of Reliability report contains lessons for Colorado’s electricity sector. While the grid as a whole “continues to deliver reliable electric service,” challenges are mounting thanks in part to the “declining availability of aging combustion generation.” NERC’s report finds that power plants failed more in 2025, with the fleet-wide forced outage rate climbing to 9.2 percent against “historical norms rarely exceeding” 8 percent. Coal-fired […]
Xcel Energy Wants to Raise Rates, But It Can’t Even Deliver Reliable Electricity
This month, Public Service Company of Colorado, Xcel Energy’s subsidiary in Colorado, reached a proposed settlement in its rate case filed in November. In a separate filing this week, the company admits that it cannot keep the lights on consistently through 2027 without running the coal plants it has advocated to close. The settlement deal […]
Despite skyrocketing electricity rates, former Gov. Ritter says voters ‘willing to pay more’
On April 11, 2016, former Colorado Governor, Bill Ritter, spoke to Colorado Public Radio host Ryan Warner about renewable energy and energy costs in Colorado. Warner pressed Ritter on the issue of costs, saying: Cost is central, central to the debate that is raging in the courts right now, in the state legislature, over the […]
