Public hearing Thursday on Xcel’s proposed rate hike

DENVER – The Colorado Public Utilities Commission will take public comment Thursday on a proposal by Xcel Energy to raise its electric rates by $137.7 million next year.

Xcel’s proposal would increase average monthly bills for residential customers by $3.96, or 5.3 percent, next year, according to the commission. Monthly bills for small-business customers would rise by an average $6.35, or 5 percent.

Xcel said the increase would support investments to reduce emissions and upgrade its infrastructure, as well as pay the company’s increasing property taxes. The company will spend nearly $1 billion by 2016 to install emissions controls on coal-fired power plants and to switch another coal-fired plant to use natural gas.

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“Xcel Energy is making cost-effective investments and upgrades to modernize its system, meet requirements and do what is right for our customers and the environment,” spokesman Mark Stutz said.
“We are proposing a price increase to support projects that replace older coal-fired power plants with new, efficient natural gas-fired plants and add state-of-the-art emission controls to reduce air emissions from existing power plants.”

Along with an increase in electric base rates, Xcel has requested commission approval of a rider effective Jan. 1, 2016, to recover additional costs not captured in the proposed base rate increase. The costs come from additional capital investment that Xcel has made as part of its emissions reduction plan to comply with the Clean Air Jobs Act passed by the Legislature in 2010.

The company is reducing emissions by 80 percent and carbon dioxide emissions by 35 percent from 2005 levels.

Under that proposal, the average monthly residential Xcel bill would increase in $1.06, or 1.4 percent, in 2016. The average commercial bill would rise $1.85, or 1.4 percent, for commercial customers in 2016.

The company does not expect a rate increase in 2017, Stutz said.

The public hearing runs from 5 p.m. and 7 p.m. in at 1560 Broadway, Suite 250, Hearing Room A, in Denver. Customers may also submit email comments to Public Utilities Commission at dora_puc_complaints@state.co.us.