State regulators considering Xcel Energy’s plan to meet rising demands for electricity are struggling to ensure there will be enough power for neighborhoods and businesses for years to come while also protecting existing customers from bearing the financial brunt if the growth projections don’t materialize.

Members of the Colorado Public Utilities Commission continued deliberations Thursday on Xcel’s proposal that includes replacing the power from coal plants that are being phased out as well as providing the large volumes of electricity that a boom in data center construction would require. The plan before the PUC was first proposed last year and has been criticized as bloated and a looming fiscal time bomb for ratepayers.

The company has reduced the size of its projected new electr

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