How to submit your own comment to Colorado’s Public Utilities Commission

Don’t want to sign our petition to the Public Utilities Commission, but still want to make an impact? Write your own letter to them.

Here are tips about how to do that.

For the specific docket around Xcel’s plan to power AI data centers, there are several ways to make your voice heard:

Attend the next public hearing and sign up to testify.

The PUC scheduled two virtual public comment hearings, one was held in August and the next is on October 20 4-6pm. The PUC’s hearings are on Zoom and you raise your hand to speak. Then, they call on people in the order they saw hands raised. You can register to attend and speak, here. To request Spanish or ASL for either meeting, please contact Megan.Castle@state.co.us.

Submit written comments to the PUC

Written comments can be submitted in several ways. The PUC treats public comments with the same weight regardless of how they are provided: virtually as described above, written or over the phone, where they will be transcribed for the Commissioners.

The PUC wants to hear from you individually to get a better sense of how its decisions have a direct impact on people and communities across Colorado, so we encourage everyone to submit original comments via the various channels the PUC makes available. Here’s how you can provide your own comments:

By Form on the PUC website via this link. 

  • Check “File a Comment in a Proceeding” and click “Next.”

  • Choose the industry you are expressing an opinion about. Check the box for either “Electric” or “Natural Gas (e.g., Heating)” and click “Next.” 

  • Click on the link that shows up for submitting comments for either electric or gas: Do NOT click “Next” as that will end the session. Just click on the link.

  • Check the box for “Xcel Energy (or Public Service Company of Colorado)” and click “Next.” 

  • You will be presented with a list of several possible dockets to choose from. 

    • For the LLT docket, select “26AL-0137E - Filing to address large loads, add a new Schedule Transmission Large Service (Schedule TL) rate, add a new Clean Transition Tariff (Schedule CTT), and implement changes to the Transmission Line Extension Policy” and click “Next.”

  • Proceed to enter your name and contact information.

  • You can enter comments directly into the “Comment” box or upload them as a file attachment.

  • When you are finished, don’t forget to click “Submit.”

By Email directly to the PUC:

  • Type your comments directly into the body of an email.

  • Include the appropriate proceeding number in the subject line 

    • “Xcel Large Load Tariff” or Docket No. 26AL-0137E”

  • Send to: dora_puc_website@state.co.us

By Phone:

  • Call 303-869-3490 and leave

  • a voicemail. 

  • In your message, be sure to specifically reference which proceeding your are commenting on:

    • “Xcel Large Load Tariff” or Docket No. 26AL-0137E”

  • Verbal comments can be provided in English and Spanish.

By Mail 

  • Send handwritten comments to the Commission’s offices at:

Colorado Public Utilities Commission
1560 Broadway
Suite 250
Denver, CO 80202

  • Be sure to include a reference at the top to the appropriate proceeding you are commenting on: 

    • “Xcel Large Load Tariff” or Docket No. 26AL-0137E”

How do I write an effective public comment?

The most powerful statements to the PUC will be individualized, original comments. Here’s tips on how to craft your own, weaving in the talking points below.

  • Make it personal and tell your story:

    • State where you live, and whether Xcel provides your electric or gas service.

    • Stay positive! The Commission has thousands of pages of highly technical information to sift through in both proceedings. Strong, positive messages can help make what you say stand out in a sea of data.

    • Tell the Commissioners why it’s important for there to be rigid guardrails protecting Coloradans from having to pay for new power and transmission resources needed by data centers, and to build more clean energy and keep Colorado on track for meeting its decarbonization goals.

    • Emotions and stories are the most compelling form of narrative; speak from the heart whenever you can.

  • Include a few key facts:

    • Pick just two or three key data points to include in your personal comments.

    • Do NOT get bogged down in highly technical information.

  • Know your audience:

    • The PUC has multiple objectives, among them: ensuring that homes and businesses have reliable electricity and heating; meeting Colorado’s statutory requirements for cutting greenhouse gas emissions; and keeping gas and electric rates affordable, including by insulating customers from cost increases related to data centers.

    • The PUC will be issuing rules on data centers and the generation and transmission resources necessary to power them; it is NOT considering halting data center growth. They don’t have purview or interest in other issues, including local siting debates or AI regulation more broadly.

  • Keep comments to no more than 3 minutes:

    • Remember this formula: 1 minute = approximately 150 words, meaning your 3-minute comment should not exceed 450 words

    • Write your comments down and practice them. Remember to time yourself! 

  • Thank the PUC for its commitment to hearing from Coloradans – and protecting customers from the impacts of data center development in the state.

Still have questions? Listen in to a few comments from the last public hearing in August for inspiration, the PUC livestreams all sessions on their YouTube channel. Or, take a look back our petition language and see what the main asks of the PUC are:

  1. Make large energy users pay the full cost of new and existing infrastructure needed to serve them.

  2. Protect other Xcel customers from higher costs and financial risks associated with data center development.

  3. Make clean, renewable energy the fastest and simplest option for large energy users so that new electricity demand does not lead to more fossil fuel use, air pollution or negative health impacts.

  4. Ensure large energy users support Colorado’s climate goals by investing in clean, renewable energy and energy storage. Any generation added in support of new large loads must move Xcel Energy closer to its goal of becoming a net-zero energy provider by 2050. 

  5. Protect communities already disproportionately impacted by industrial air and noise pollution from the additional impacts of new large-load customers.

  6. Require transparency and reject Xcel’s proposal for secretive “speed to market” contracts that could allow them to make special deals with large customers instead of following new tariff rules.