PUC orders hosting-capacity pilot and tighter review for Black Hills’ economic-development rate request

The Colorado Public Utilities Commission on Dec. 17 adopted a package of incremental steps in response to exceptions filed in Black Hills Colorado Electric’s Distribution System Plan and related EDR application.

The commission granted, in part, the Office of the Utility Consumer Advocate’s incremental proposals: Black Hills must identify the five most-constrained feeders and run a pilot hosting capacity analysis (HCA) for those feeders; the company must report how it uses grid-data—including HCA results—to prioritize investments; and the commission asked for reporting on pilot outcomes to inform the next DSP.

Chair Mark Blank also requested additional modeling for Black Hills’ EDR (economic development rate) application. He asked the company to produce two scenario runs using an existing forecast and a second that adds a hypothetical 40-megawatt new load at an 80% load factor, and to apply a levelized capacity cost of $20 per kilowatt-month (the methodology the commission used for Public Service EDR approvals). Blank asked the company to show bill impacts both with and without EDR pricing and to run sensitivity cases that incorporate transmission-cost increases if new transmission would be required.

"I'd ask Black Hills to adopt a $20 kW-month levelized capacity cost," Blank said, and he asked the company to supply the supplemental direct testimony or exhibits needed to make a completeness determination for the EDR filing.

Commissioners said they preferred a reasonableness standard on data requests to avoid undue compliance cost while still expecting meaningful reporting. The commission declined to quantify projected long-term bill increases in the DSP order and noted it expects the HCA pilot and reporting to be part of the next DSP to move toward fuller compliance.