Monthly gas bills will rise after Xcel Energy wins OK of $130M hike in revenue
JudahN_Admin
Posted On November 13, 2024
The payments for Xcel Power pure gasoline prospects are going up after the Colorado Public Utilities Fee authorised a rise of $130.76 million in income.
A median month-to-month residential invoice will rise by $4.57 and the common month-to-month invoice for small companies will rise by $17.49.
The upper charges took impact Nov. 5.
“The PUC desires Xcel Power customers to concentrate on this enhance to their invoice,” PUC Director Rebecca White mentioned in a press release. “That is particularly necessary, as many shoppers use pure gasoline to warmth their properties within the winter.”
Xcel Power sought a rise of roughly $171 million. The PUC mentioned in a submitting that the speed enhance request “prompted a unprecedented variety of written public feedback” objecting to the brand new charge.
The corporate mentioned the extra income will go towards investments within the security and integrity of its pure gasoline system and connecting new prospects.
The Colorado Workplace of the Utility Shopper Advocate, which represents the general public earlier than state regulators, opposed Xcel’s proposed enhance, saying prospects have been experiencing “a pancaking of charge will increase” since February 2020. A report on charge traits exhibits that Xcel’s gasoline revenues have grown from $1 billion in 2020 to over $1.8 billion in 2023, “an 80% enhance in income in three quick years,” the UCA mentioned in a submitting.
The PUC employees argued that Xcel’s charge request was unreasonably excessive and really useful decreasing the rise. In an Oct. 25 doc, the fee mentioned it was dissatisfied by the “sluggish tempo of change” in Xcel’s spending on pure gasoline.
Critics have argued the corporate ought to spend much less on gasoline as a result of the state is making a transition from fossil fuels to extra renewable power sources. They’ve warned that gasoline vegetation will change into “stranded property,” much like coal vegetation that Xcel and different utilities are shutting down to chop greenhouse gasoline emissions.
“In an atmosphere the place gross sales will seemingly decline, giant will increase in capital spending will trigger substantial charge and invoice impacts sooner or later because the Firm information charge circumstances in search of to recuperate the related prices,” the PUC mentioned in its submitting.
Xcel Power in more and more including photo voltaic and wind initiatives and battery storage to its system in Colorado, however expects to maintain pure gasoline in its gas combine for the foreseeable future. The corporate has mentioned it nonetheless wants “dispatchable” power, which may be turned on and off as wanted when energy from renewable power sources won’t be obtainable.
Xcel is Colorado’s largest electrical utility. It supplies electrical energy to 1.6 million prospects and pure gasoline to 1.5 million prospects, with overlaps between the 2 teams.
For these in search of assist to pay their power payments, the PUC has the Utility Invoice Assist Program, which may be discovered on the PUC web site or by visiting https://puc.colorado.gov/utilitybillhelp.
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