Xcel Energy is aiming to raise its gas customers’ bills by an average $7.59 a month — for a total of $190 million — to pay for safety improvements, rising operating and maintenance costs and investor returns.
The company filed the proposed rate hike with the Colorado Public Utilities Commission on Monday.
The rate request comes a little more than a month after Xcel Energy filed for a $356 million electric rate increase, which would raise the average residential electric bill 10% to $110 a month.
In late November, the PUC also approved a $155 million plan to deal with potential gas shortages at the ends of its Eastern Mountain Gas System in Summit and Grand counties, a portion of which will also be paid for by all gas customers.
Xcel Energy, Colorado’s largest utility, has 1.5 million gas customers and 1.6 million electricity customers, with 1.1 million taking both gas and electric service.
The two rate cases are seeking more than half a billion dollars from Xcel Energy customers.
“This filing in addition to an electric rate increase is a test of customers’ and decision-makers’ will,” said Joseph Pereira, the deputy director of the Colorado Office of the Utility Consumer Advocate.
“An action like this is completely out of touch with the situation on the ground, unless they have ventured to test the limits of the system,” Pereira said. “The company is on a massive spending spree.” The UCA represents residential and small commercial customers in rate cases.
In a letter submitted to the Colorado Public Utilities Commission, Robert Kenney, CEO of Xcel Energy’s Colorado subsidiary, said “these investments ensure our natural gas system stays safe and secure, helping to keep customers, our employees, the public, and our communities safe from the risks of delivering a combustible, energy-dense fuel directly to customers’ homes and businesses.”
In PUC filings Monday, Xcel Energy explained that in this rate request it is playing catch-up for $101 million in expenditures the company has already made, but not been reimbursed through rates. This is known as “regulatory lag.”
The largest chunk of spending, $59 million, was for safety initiatives including removing 1,400 miles of high-risk service lines and 40 miles of high-risk distribution lines, making 287 pipeline repairs, and overhauling 25 regulatory stations. These are expenditures made in the last two years.
Another $42 million addressed operation and maintenance expenditures and $52 million for return on equity or return on capital investment, an important metric for investors.
If the request is approved, average residential customers will see their monthly gas bill rise 11.4% to $74.41, beginning in October, the start of the next heating season.
Small commercial customers will see their bills go up 13% to $316.03, up $36.47 each month.
The average residential customer will be paying 0.76% of household income, the so-called wallet share, for gas, up from 0.64%. Consumer advocates contend that is not a good measure of the impact of rising bills.
“With every major filing it’s $10 a month here, $10 a month there,” UCA’s Pereira said. “There is no recognition of the speed they are investing relative to customers’ experience.”
Xcel Energy did say, “We recognize that wallet share, while meaningful in the aggregate, does not reflect that some customers have very real economic challenges.”
The company is putting $5 million in corporate funds toward programs to help low-income customers pay their bills.
While the company is highlighting the programs it will have to help low-income customers, Pereira said “the pressure of the utility bill extends far beyond low-income customers to middle-income customers, who have no access to these programs.”
Hence then, the article about here comes another xcel energy rate hike this time the utility is asking to raise your gas bill was published today ( ) and is available on Colorado Sun ( Middle East ) The editorial team at PressBee has edited and verified it, and it may have been modified, fully republished, or quoted. You can read and follow the updates of this news or article from its original source.
Read More Details
Finally We wish PressBee provided you with enough information of ( Here comes another Xcel Energy rate hike. This time, the utility is asking to raise your gas bill. )
Also on site :
- Stunning ISS Photo of Florida, Cuba Captures & 039;Moonglint& 039;
- How Nashville’s Music Row Went MAGA in 2025
- Simon Sinek says not to worry about salaries during a job interview. Instead, ‘choose the job based on who you’re going to work for’