Posted on 09/02/2018 6:03:05 AM PDT by george76
Xcel again proved its preeminent power over every crack and crevasse of state government when the governor’s appointed Public Utilities Commission approved Xcel’s plan to close two state-of-the-art power plants a decade before they’re supposed to. At the same time the PUC acknowledges Xcel was lying when they said the move would save us money.
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The public relations spin on this corporate heist is glorious. Even though the coal-fired power plants, Comanche 1 and 2, are the most clean-burning that modern technology allows, making them the cleanest in the nation, they still use vilified coal, so this move looks green. But really, it’s only about the other green.
It wouldn’t matter to Xcel if the Comanche plants were 100 percent powered by zero-emission bunny flatulence, the corporatist money is in the closing plants and building new ones.
Since the sun doesn’t always shine and the wind doesn’t always blow, Xcel convinced the PUC to let them build three and a half times more “power plant” than what they are closing. This is to “guarantee” the same amount of consistent power output. So, they’re closing 660 megawatts of low-cost, dependable coal power to build 2,400 megawatts worth of inconsistent solar and wind power plants.
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This wouldn’t be an issue if the cost of this scheme was born by Xcel’s shareholders. But, of course, it’s not. Xcel gets to charge us customers for it. In fact, they get to make a guaranteed 10 percent rate of return on it. That’s 10 percent multiplied three and a half times over, for building three and a half times more power generation than is already working just fine.
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they still get to charge us for the old plants they’re retiring. So, make that four and a half times.
(Excerpt) Read more at wsoe.org ...
Colorado Ping ( Let me know if you wish to be added or removed from the list.)
With such a cost+ scheme it is all guaranteed to come in waaaay over the original cost. That sort of arrangement is a bright green light for padding costs.
The Swamp isn't just in DC, it is in every Friggen State House in the country, including my Lansing. Who is on this commission and how do they benefit. This is why the Swamp mentality is so corrosive, it is not about competition, it is about keeping you from taking on who has been anointed and competing against them. If we here on FR came up with Co-Gen units people could put in there basements to generate power cheaper than the utilities and take on Xcel, they would insure the permitting and lines fees for backup power would nail you to the wall so you didn't want to even considering doing it. The "Fighter Mafia" (if you are an airplane nut you'll get the reference) on steroids...
Gotta love Cost+, if you are the seller!
Clearly Bobo's 8 years has gotten to these people -- either these CEOs are now indebted to Bobo or kowtowing to him for the right to f over their customers.
—good article by Jon Caldera-—peculiarly, Firefox let me get the link and copy it, then when I tried to go back to it a second time both Firefox and Edge denied the source as “unsecure”-—
Environmentalists burnt down a big chunk of California. The ELF people burnt down several resorts. They are trying to destroy the energy infrastructure now.
That’s XEL, if you wish to receive your income from naive environmentalists....
From another article:
https://www.denverpost.com/2017/08/29/xcel-energy-pueblo-coal-plants-retiring/
Xcel has agreed to not own more than half of the new renewable generation sought and 75 percent of the natural gas generation, assuming it can outbid independent producers. And if the bids leave Comanche coal-generation as the lowest cost alternative, then those units will stay in operation.
Eves expects the competitive bidding process will lower electricity costs for customers, even after accounting for the expense of retiring the two Comanche units 10 years early.
To help protect ratepayers, the plan will seek to cut a 2 percent surcharge charged as part of the state’s renewable energy mandate to 1 percent, most likely by 2021 or 2022.
But the plan faces opposition from Republican lawmakers and coal advocates who argue Xcel is replacing an affordable and dependable power source with heavily subsidized and unreliable alternatives.
A large clear photo of some jamoke is well and good, but who the hell is he, and why is he here?
how are customers supposed to believe that spending $2.5 billion (of our money, not shareholders’) is now in our best interest in order to close two well-performing, environmentally superior units when 15 years ago Xcel told us spending $190 million to upgrade them was in our best interest to keep the units running through 2035?
The Minneapolis-based monopoly - executive compensation is tied to stock performance, rather than product performance, as the latter can be unilaterally offset by increased costs on its customers. As such, Xcel’s executives and shareholders, the largest holders of which are Wall Street banks, reap all of the profit, while the general public assumes all the risk.
https://coloradopolitics.com/xcel-ratepayers-would-get-a-bum-deal-under-colorado-energy-plan/
That’s a Texas sized Crony Environmental Capitalist.
Lefties dream about intermittent, not reliable electrical production that does not work when the wind does not blow ( or blows too hard ) and when the sun is not shining..
https://www.denverpost.com/2018/08/31/xcel-profit-environmental-impact/
Thank you.
Here in Illinois, we have a Crony army sucking the life out of the state.
When I lived in the great state of Texas, many critters of all types were often on display in the middle of the road.
Do not recall anything that ugly?
This is an outrage. and nothing will be done about it.
Kick back$ to Hick and pals ?
Has to be, nothing else about it make any sense.
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