Denver eyes late-June Xcel franchise deal as officials outline fees, relocation terms and voter path

Denver officials told the City Council's Budget and Policy Committee on June 8 they were trying to finish a new long-term franchise agreement with Xcel Energy and a companion Energy Partnership Agreement by late June, setting up possible City Council action and, eventually, a vote by Denver residents.

The timing matters because Denver says its current 20-year franchise agreement with Xcel expires Dec. 31, 2026, and a replacement franchise must be referred to voters. The same city page says the existing arrangement now sends about $30 million a year in franchise-fee revenue to Denver's General Fund.

At the June 8 briefing, city staff and Xcel representatives said they expected to finalize the companion agreement by late June ahead of a planned June 30 governance committee meeting. Staff said the package was being built around affordability, sustainability and reliability, with added accountability provisions over a 20-year term.

City staff said at the briefing the draft franchise terms would preserve roughly $30 million in annual franchise fees. Staff also said the draft would expand Xcel's obligation to pay for relocating utility infrastructure for a broad set of government-sponsored projects, including city work as well as projects involving Denver Water, RTD, business improvement districts, the airport and other entities.

Denver has said those relocation terms can carry major financial consequences. On the city's Xcel partnership page, the city says relocation requirements under the current agreement saved an estimated $3 billion on non-airport projects over the last 20-year term. City officials said during the June 8 briefing the broader relocation provisions were among the biggest wins in the draft.

On the companion Energy Partnership Agreement, city negotiators said at the meeting they were seeking stronger terms on shareholder contributions, energy assistance, substation design and data access. They also said Denver wanted more formal transparency and community oversight through regular briefings to the mayor and council, a community advisory committee and a public dashboard tracking initiatives, timelines, funding and outcomes.

Those proposed terms would define what Denver gets beyond the right to collect fees and manage utility work in public rights of way. Based on the June 8 presentation, the city was seeking commitments tied to affordability and reliability, plus more routine public reporting and better access to utility data. But officials also said at the briefing some final language was still under negotiation, leaving open how specific those commitments would be in the final legal documents and what remedies Denver would have if Xcel fell short.

Officials said during the committee discussion the draft would continue to rely on Colorado Public Utilities Commission enforcement, including fines and customer credits, for service failures and outage issues. Council members pressed on planned-outage communication, notifications for customers who rely on medical devices, substation siting and design, shareholder contribution levels, and how Denver's push toward electrification fits with future gas infrastructure.

In the same meeting, Xcel representatives said the company had increased outreach after criticism that it had not been engaged enough. They cited 1,500 outreach contacts to 189 registered neighborhood organizations, JIDs and BIDs, along with 31 neighborhood presentations and 47 Red Truck events in Denver since January. Xcel representatives also said the company created a rapid-response team for recurring complaints such as streetlight outages, planned-outage notifications, vegetation management and substation maintenance.

Several questions remained unresolved after the June 8 presentation: whether negotiators would meet the late-June deadline, how the final franchise and partnership agreements would define Denver's enforcement tools, and when City Council would decide whether to send the franchise question to voters.