Colorado Public Utilities Commission

Impact Study of Investor Owned Utilities’ Tariffs, Policies, and Practices on Beneficial Electrification and Distributed Energy Resources

Lotus supported the Colorado Public Utilities Commission in conducting a thorough review of the State of Colorado’s Investor-Owned Utilities (IOU) electric utility tariffs, interconnection and line extension policies, programs, and cost allocation principles to determine if they pose any barriers to beneficial electrification and the implementation of distributed energy resources (DERs). The two IOUs evaluated were  Xcel Energy and Black Hills Energy. The project involved data requests to the IOUs to better understand their tariffs, interconnection and line extension policies, programs, and cost allocation principles. In addition, Lotus facilitated several external stakeholder focus groups to learn from utility stakeholders how they perceive the programs, policies, tariffs, etc and posing barriers to electrification and the deployment of DERs. Following engagement with external stakeholders in both Xcel and Black Hills Energy territories, Lotus compiled a report summarizing the input they received on barriers and identified recommendations for the PUC to consider to help remove barriers for electrification and DERs in the utility service territory. As part of this project, Lotus also researched utility best practices for several of the identified barriers and presented these to the PUC in the final report.