Xcel to raise rates in 2015, 2016

Xcel Energy Inc. (NYSE: XEL) has reached a settlement agreement on its 2014 electric rate case filing, the company announced today.

The agreement would result in a three-year rate plan, with moderate rate increases in 2015 and 2016, and a small decrease in 2017.

Typical residential rates would increase by 1.31 percent in 2015 and estimated 0.97 percent in 2016 under the agreement, which must be approved by the Colorado Public Utilities Commission. A slight decrease of approximately 0.15 percent would occur in 2017. Typical small-business customers would see similar changes.

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Platte River must prepare for the retirement of 431 megawatts (MW) of dispatchable, coal-fired generation by the end of the decade and address more frequent extreme weather events that can bring dark calms (periods when there is no sun or wind).

“The settlement agreement further demonstrates that at very reasonable cost to our customers, we have been able to achieve significant environmental improvements in Colorado,” said David Eves, president and CEO of Public Service Co. of Colorado, an Xcel Energy company, in a statement. “By 2016, we will complete nearly $1 billion of investments in state-of-the-art emission controls, and plant retirement and replacement projects.”