Pueblo, Colo. citizens overwhelmingly vote to keep Black Hills Energy as electric utility
Voters in Pueblo, Colorado, overwhelmingly rejected a proposal to form a municipal electric utility in a special election on Tuesday, and instead voted to continue the city’s contract with Black Hills Energy.
According to unofficial results Tuesday night, 19,727 voters rejected measure 2A and 5,930 voted in support of it.
In 2010, Pueblo entered into a 20-year agreement for Black Hills Energy to be the city’s electricity provider. That contract ends in August, but after Tuesday’s vote, will continue. The city will have the opportunity to opt out of the contract again at 10 years.
“We’re grateful for the results of today’s special election in Pueblo, where voters have chosen to continue receiving reliable electric service from Black Hills Energy while maintaining our existing franchise agreement,” said Black Hills Energy said in a statement released Tuesday night. “The election result is a great tribute to the hard work of our Black Hills Energy Colorado Electric team, which delivers reliability performance in the top 25 percent of all electric utilities nationwide.”
Mark Aliff, city councilman for Pueblo and co-chair of the city’s Electric Utility Commission, said, he was struck by the resounding defeat of the proposal. “This was such a big defeat that I don’t know where we go from here.”
The city had commissioned two phases of a feasibility study, written by EES Consulting, Inc., which found that ratepayers would save 10-12 percent per year if they were to municipalize their electric utility, with upfront costs coming in at between $255 million and $334 million.
Black Hills Energy said the city was underestimating many costs to run a utility, and commissioned its own study, written by Concentric Energy Advisors, which found that it would cost the municipality $402 million to acquire all needed assets from the utility. The projected cost for the city to run the municipal utility would be $131.4 million (compared with $114.5 for Black Hills) in the baseline year.
In a press conference after the vote, Pueblo Mayor Nicholas Gradisar seemed positive about moving forward with Black Hills Energy. He said he is willing to work together to find solutions to the city’s energy issues, including how to support the local economy and bring more businesses to town. He said he hopes Black Hills Energy will get more involved with economic development efforts in the area.
“This hasn’t been a pleasant experience, I’m sure, for the local employees of Black Hills Energy that are in Pueblo. Hopefully they have a feeling that this is their community and that they want to see this community succeed as much as we do,” said Mayor Gradisar. “I think the local people do want to be partners with the community.”
“… I want to encourage them to offer economic development rates to companies that might be energy consumers and who want to move here so that we can be more competitive than we have in the past,” the mayor added.
Black Hills added in its statement, “We look forward to serving our customers in Pueblo and Southern Colorado for many years to come.”
