Xcel Rate Increase Puts Colorado Families on the Hook

The Colorado Sun’s Mark Jaffe reports that Xcel Energy customers could be looking at what consumer advocates call the largest electric rate increase in Colorado history, if a proposed $225 million settlement wins approval from the Public Utilities Commission. Xcel originally sought $327 million in new customer revenue, and the settlement would still give the utility 69% of what it asked for.

In plain English, Xcel asked big, the settlement gives them most of it, and residential customers get handed the check while everyone puts on their “responsible utility planning” face. The average household bill would rise about $6.13 a month, small businesses would see about $8.90 more, and prior riders have already helped push rates up 22% over three years. Add this settlement, and Coloradans are staring at roughly 28% in three years. That is not a rounding error. That is groceries, payroll, gas money, and another family wondering why every “transition” somehow transitions money out of their wallet.

The Bullet Point Brief

• Xcel wants more money, and the proposed settlement would deliver $225 million, pending PUC approval. Nothing says “public oversight” like a deal normal people only hear about after the adults in the utility clubhouse have already passed the mashed potatoes.
• The average residential bill would climb nearly 6%, from about $104.68 to $110.81 per month. Families, retirees, and small businesses already eating inflation are now supposed to nod politely while the monthly bill squeeze gets wrapped in regulatory aromatherapy.
• The Colorado Office of Utility Consumer Advocate, Boulder, AARP Colorado, and Energy Outreach Colorado oppose the settlement. UCA’s Joseph Pereira said it looks like the company, PUC staff, and corporate interests made an agreement that saddles residential customers with the largest rate increase in Colorado history. That line ought to be stapled to the front door of the PUC.
• Xcel says it needs capital for grid hardening, wildfire mitigation, rising demand, higher costs, supply chain problems, interest rates, and legislatively mandated energy programs. Some of that may be real. But real costs still deserve real scrutiny. “Trust us, we’re expensive” is not a business plan taxpayers and ratepayers should have to salute.
• Comanche 3, the troubled Pueblo coal plant that has been offline for repairs since last August, stays in the rate base under the settlement. Xcel could face up to $30 million in penalties for poor performance. Is that accountability, or just a parking ticket on a broken-down bus customers are still financing?

My Bottom Line

Reliable power costs money. That is reality. Anyone pretending we can run a modern state on slogans, sunshine, and a nonprofit’s Instagram reel is selling progressive bedtime-story economics. We need a strong grid, dependable generation, wildfire mitigation, and investment that keeps the lights on.

But rubber-stamping repeated hikes while politicians mandate expensive programs, utilities protect their returns, and regulators call it prudence is its own scam with better paperwork. The PUC does not work for Xcel shareholders. It works for the public. That means before Coloradans pay another dime, someone needs to prove every dollar is necessary, not merely convenient.

This is the cozy triangle at work: utility, regulators, corporate players, and policy mandates producing a settlement that lands hardest on residential customers. Xcel gets to talk about infrastructure. Politicians get to talk about transition. Corporate players get a seat at the table. Families get the bill. Cute trick.

Twenty-eight percent in three years is a lot. It is even more galling when consumers are already paying through riders, adjustments, fees, programs, and all the other little line-item barnacles stuck to the side of the electric bill. The adult question is simple: has anyone proven this increase is truly necessary, or are Coloradans just being told to fund the next chapter of Colorado’s expensive energy fantasy one monthly squeeze at a time?

Source: The Colorado Sun