Xcel Energy proposes $312.2M revenue increase in latest Colorado rate proposal
Xcel Energy of Colorado last week filed for an approximately $312.2 million revenue increase with state regulators – a change that could bring typical residential bills up $7.33 per month to support grid reliability and resilience efforts.
In return, the company said this would allow it to upgrade the grid to make it more resistant to severe weather and cyberattacks and help its pivot to a cleaner energy mix. Since its last review, Xcel has invested more than $2.1 billion into electric generation, transmission, and distribution infrastructure, bolstering the lot against weather, wildfires, and other climate-driven problems and introducing measures that reduce carbon emissions and increase renewable energy use.
“Our customers expect us to deliver affordable, reliable, and increasingly clean energy every day,” Robert Kenney, president of Xcel Energy—Colorado, said. “These investments are important for the safety and security of the grid and will benefit our customers in the long run while ensuring the company and the state stay on track to meet our energy goals.”
If approved, the proposal would keep customers’ bills below the national average, despite increasing charges around 8.2 percent. Xcel pledged to use that money to replace aging equipment, enhance the system, provide new services for new housing and commercial development, deploy new technology for increasingly dramatic weather, better protect the grid and create new products and services with energy usage insights, account management options, and more.
Additionally, the proposal would make room for six microgrid projects expected to enter service next year. These would help the company’s community resilience attempts, which call for building backup power supplies. Given this comes at a time when inflation has left many hard-pressed, Kenny seemed to acknowledge this, adding that the company would work to keep bills as low as possible, even with the rate hike, using a variety of cost-control measures.
