Xcel Asks Colorado’s Supreme Court to Condemn 550 Feet of Land Blocking 1,053 MW of Wind

Public Service Company of Colorado, the Xcel Energy utility, asked the Colorado Supreme Court on July 31, 2026 to let it condemn about 550 feet of easement in Cheyenne County. The strip crosses ranch land owned by Dryland Partners. Two wind projects sit behind it. Singing Grass rates 603 MW and Cheyenne Ridge II rates 450 MW. That puts 1,053 MW of generation behind a gap shorter than two football fields.

Cheyenne County District Judge Mike Davidson rejected the utility’s condemnation petition in June 2026. His reasoning turned on a single word. PSCo called the lines “generation tie-lines” in its own filings and permits, not transmission lines. Colorado gives regulated utilities the power to condemn land for transmission. Davidson found that the utility’s own vocabulary placed these lines outside that grant.

The distinction the case turns on

A generation tie-line connects one power plant to the grid. A transmission line carries power across the network for many users. The steel and conductor can look identical. The legal treatment does not follow the hardware. It follows who benefits.

The two lines are not short. Cheyenne Ridge II needs a 5.4-mile tie-line. Singing Grass needs 28.8 miles. Both run to the Goose Creek substation northwest of Cheyenne Wells. PSCo bought roughly 90 acres from the same landowner in 2022 for $585,000 to build that substation. The dispute now covers the last 550 feet of the path.

Colorado utility regulators approved the underlying plan in January 2024. PSCo has appealed to the Colorado Court of Appeals and petitioned the Supreme Court in parallel. The utility told the court the ruling is significantly delaying both projects and the customer benefits that follow them.

Enforcement reality

The ruling binds one district today. A Supreme Court answer would bind the state. Developers across Colorado route generation tie-lines through private land on the assumption that a utility partner can condemn a holdout parcel. Davidson’s order removes that assumption where the paperwork says gen-tie.

Lawmakers already noticed. Colorado legislators moved in March 2026 to narrow utility eminent domain powers, citing this dispute and an earlier fight over the Power Pathway transmission line in Elbert County. A court win for PSCo could arrive into a narrower statute than the one it sued under.

Why It Matters

Interconnection studies and queue reform get the attention. This case shows that a project can clear every regulatory step and still stall on a title question over 550 feet. Queue position does not create a right of way.

The cost sits with ratepayers either way. PSCo bid these projects into an approved resource plan with in-service dates now past. Delay pushes replacement energy costs into rates while the turbines wait. A landowner who sold 90 acres willingly in 2022 is now the reason 1,053 MW cannot reach the grid, which says more about how gen-ties get sited than about the landowner.

Developers should read their own permits closely. The word chosen to describe a line in a county application may decide whether that line can cross land the owner will not sell.

Critical Perspective

The utility’s framing deserves scrutiny. PSCo says the ruling delays 1,053 MW and the customer benefits behind it. PSCo also chose the words that lost the case. Calling these lines generation tie-lines across county permits was not a drafting slip. It matches how the industry describes a radial line built to serve one plant.

If PSCo now prevails by arguing those same lines are transmission, the definition stretches well past this dispute. A 28.8-mile radial line serving one wind farm would carry the same condemnation power as a shared network line. That is the outcome Colorado legislators moved to narrow in March 2026, after this case and the Power Pathway fight in Elbert County.

There is a second reading the utility does not offer. Dryland Partners sold PSCo 90 acres in 2022 without a court order. A seller who dealt once and declined the next time may be pricing the easement rather than refusing it. The record so far does not show what was offered for those 550 feet. Should a landowner in Cheyenne County be able to predict, before signing anything, which label a utility will attach to the next line across the same ground?

Sources

• Utility Dive: Xcel asks Colorado Supreme Court to facilitate wind farm interconnection
• Kiowa County Independent: Judge Rejects Xcel Condemnation Bid in Cheyenne County Energy Corridor Dispute
• Oklahoma Energy Today: Xcel heads to Colorado Supreme Court in eminent domain fight
• Colorado Politics: Colorado lawmakers move to curb eminent domain powers after Xcel dispute
• Colorado Sun: Xcel using eminent domain to clear a route for its Power Pathway transmission line

Related Coverage

• FERC Order 1977 Clarifies Interconnection Rights: Interconnection rights impact Xcel’s wind project
• FERC Order 2222: CAISO and ISO-NE Complete DER Compliance: FERC orders affect Xcel’s grid operations
• Interconnection Delays Push Manufacturers to Private 1 GW Power: Interconnection delays hinder renewable energy projects
• Energy Department Invests $1.9B in Grid Infrastructure: Grid infrastructure investments support wind energy growth