BOULDER - Xcel Energy consultant Bob Bellemare on Wednesday questioned if 2013 is the best time for city of Boulder officials to decide whether or not to condemn Xcel's electricity assets in Boulder and strike off toward a city-owned, city-run utility.

Bellemare is the chief operating officer of Mykrobel LLC, a consulting firm in New Mexico that focuses on a variety of utility-related work, including valuation, financial feasibility, engineering and new power generation. He declined to give financial details about his relationship with Xcel Energy Inc.

Bellemare questioned the city of Boulder's model for electricity rates, operation costs and renewable energy amounts in his talk "What are they missing? Essential points about Boulder's municipalization analysis," at the lunch sponsored by Boulder Tomorrow, a business group, at A Spice of Life Event Center. About 60 people attended the lunch.

"Why not take another year to get to forming a new utility?" Bellemare asked rhetorically in an interview after the lunch. "Why now? ... This is a big step coming up."

A recent city analysis suggests that electricity rates would be less expensive for residents than they are now if Boulder owned and ran its own electricity utility. Plans also call for the possible new utility to use more renewable energy than the amount used by current electricity provider Xcel Energy Inc.

Bellemare said the city's model shows electricity rates similar to current rates or slightly below for several years, but they will increase above Xcel's projected rates, Bellemare said.

Boulder city staffer Jonathan Koehn said after the talk that if there are "fatal flaws" in the city's modeling, staffers want them brought forward so they can be addressed before any decision is made.

"It's our job to ensure the modeling is as accurate and robust as possible. If there are things that (Bellemare) can add to the process, we want to incorporate that," said Koehn, who is the city's regional sustainability coordinator.

Bellemare is scheduled to speak at a Boulder Chamber lunch Friday, May 31 at the chamber, 2240 Pearl St. For more information and to sign up, go online at www.boulderchamber.com.

Boulder officials are expected to decide in August whether or not to move forward to create a city-owned, city-run utility. Boulder voters in November 2011 narrowly approved two ballot measures - one which allows the city to explore creating its own electric utility; the other creating a budget of $1.9 million annually for five years to pay for related work.