Public Utilities Commission Grants Extraordinary Protection of Highly Confidential Information in Investigation into Recent Outages

Strategic Insights -

The Colorado Public Utilities Commission has issued a decision granting the Public Service Company of Colorado's motion for extraordinary protection of highly confidential information and waiving response time in an investigation into recent outages on the utility's electric system. The investigation was opened on September 16, 2024, following a spate of outages, and the Commission directed its staff to conduct a full audit to identify the causes and potential solutions. The Company has requested that specific geographic information, technical details of electric facilities, and other sensitive information be protected as highly confidential, citing risks of attacks by bad actors on the utility's transmission and distribution systems.

Key Takeaways:

  • The Commission granted the Public Service Company of Colorado's motion for extraordinary protection of highly confidential information, citing the Company's need to protect sensitive information about its electric infrastructure.
  • The protected information includes specific geographic information, technical details of electric facilities, and other sensitive information that could be used to describe the utility's electric infrastructure.
  • The Commission emphasized that the granted protection applies only to members of the public requesting the protected information, and anyone seeking access must request it directly from the Company.
  • The Commission also noted that the highly confidential protections sought by the Company apply only to members of the public specifically requesting the protected information.
  • The investigation is ongoing, and the Commission encourages interested members of the public to submit comments regarding the Company's outages.
  • Public Service Company of Colorado will again be required to seek protection of any of the information at issue here if filed in a subsequent adjudicatory proceeding.

Statistics:

  • The investigation into recent outages on Public Service Company of Colorado's electric system was opened on September 16, 2024.
  • The Commission granted the Company's motion for extraordinary protection of highly confidential information on October 28, 2024.
  • The protected information includes existing electric infrastructure and detailed locational and technical infrastructure information.
  • The risks of attacks by bad actors on utilities' transmission and distribution systems could increase due to public disclosure of sensitive information.

Sources:

  • Before the Public Utilities Commission of the State of Colorado Decision No. C24-0783-I
  • Colorado Public Utilities Commission
  • Public Service Company of Colorado