Xcel will raise electric bills again next month. A quarter of the hike will cover closing coal-fired power plants.
The utility’s 1.6 million Colorado customers will see their bills rise 4.4% — about $4 on the average residential bill — on Sept. 1
Mike Sweeney/Special to the Colorado Sun
Electricity bills for 1.6 million Colorado customers of Xcel Energy will rise 4.4% — about $3.99 on the average residential bill — on Sept. 1, under a settlement approved Wednesday by the state Public Utilities Commission.
In 2022, Xcel Energy, Colorado’s largest electricity supplier, filed for a $312 million rate hike, but under the settlement it will get an increase of $96 million.
The reduced revenue figure was reached in a settlement between Xcel Energy and state agencies and major industrial and commercial customers.
That follows a $182 million rate increase in April 2022, which raised the average electricity bill $5.24 a month, or about 6.4%.
The September rate increase could have been even smaller under a proposal made by the state Office of Utility Consumer Advocate that would have deferred $48 million in costs associated with closing five coal-fired power plants until the last plant, Comanche 3, in Pueblo, is shuttered in 2031.
Read more from Mark Jaffe at ColoradoSun.com.
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