Advanced Energy Perspectives

In May 2023, Xcel Energy Colorado filed its inaugural Gas Infrastructure Plan (GIP). Not only was this a first for Colorado, but in a national regulatory landscape light on gas utility oversight, it was also among the first of its kind nationwide. With the gas industry facing unprecedented headwinds – and in light of changing policy, technology, and market conditions – states are looking for new tools to understand and evaluate gas infrastructure investments. Colorado is at the forefront of that change, with state, city, and county emissions reduction policies and programs layered on top of generous state and federal rebates and incentives for clean appliances. In addition, gas commodity and infrastructure costs are rising, and innovation and scale are happening in the cold-climate heating solutions marketplace. All of these beg the question: how do we align long-lived, ratepayer-funded utility infrastructure investments with these long-term trends while still providing for our energy needs in the near term?

This past weekend, President Biden signed a bill to raise the national debt ceiling that also included modest improvements in the permitting process for building clean energy projects. As part of the negotiation process, Congressional leaders considered policy changes to speed up the buildout of large-scale electric grid transmission, such as expanding transmission capacity between regions. Ultimately, and unfortunately, those reforms were not included in the bill.

In our previous post, Charging toward the EV transition. Part 1. we covered the first three trends in EV legislation—looking back at 2022.

As consumers face the electricity cost hikes and threats of blackouts that come with extreme weather conditions, it’s more important than ever to consider the potential benefits of a West-wide power grid. We already know that a Western regional transmission organization (RTO) could improve power system reliability, but a recent west-wide analysis conducted by Energy Strategies on behalf of AEE confirms that the region would also net major economic gains by establishing this kind of regional power grid. AEE also released three state-specific summaries showing that a Western RTO would generate huge economic benefits in Colorado, New Mexico, and Arizona. And that got people talking.