I really appreciate the time the reporter took in outlining all of these fees and where they came from.
As a Reminder CWPMA successfully fought against using the regulated rate base to make E.V. investments for four years before this bill ultimately passed when one party control happened in Colorado in 2019. People do not need to pay more to help kids warm this winter or to keep ever more expensive food from spoiling so that entities can make rate based investments for people who buy a 90k dollar Tesla.
There are ample hundreds of millions of Colorado taxpayer (subsidized by liquid fuels) and federal deficit spending dollars for Electric vehicles. You don’t need to raise peoples energy bills for this. A truly progressive Majority in Colorado would look out for working families and repeal this provision (that utilities can make rate based investments for E.V.’s.)
So as a state we are perfectly okay raising heating bills on people who don’t even own cars….. so that people who are already subsidized for road use can with the purchase of E.V’s and got a non means tested tax credit, have a place to charge (Check.)
Xcel customers likely to see higher energy rates as winter arrives
· By SCOTT WEISER scott.weiser@gazette.com
Colorado customers likely face steeper energy bills in the New Year if natural gas prices remain high, as experts anticipate, even after coping with hikes in electricity and natural gas costs exceeding 50% in the last year, not to mention soaring inflation.
Global demand for natural gas, caused in part by the Russian war in Ukraine, drove prices up earlier this year, according to an October report from the federal Energy Information Administration.
· By SCOTT WEISER scott.weiser@gazette.com
Consumption outpaced production in the first half of 2022 as market dynamics drove strong domestic natural gas demand, the federal agency reported, adding it expects natural gas prices to rise this winter as a result of seasonal demand for natural gas in space heating, which typically peaks in January and February. Higher demand in the Northern Hemisphere for LNG exports will also contribute to increased natural gas prices, the agency said.
Xcel Energy, which serves more than 1.4 million Coloradans, warned customers that colder temperatures, which moved into Colorado yesterday, are expected to blanket most of the country over the next week. The utility company purchases natural gas at wholesale, and the cost of the natural gas provided to customers and used to generate electricity is passed along to customers without markup. To help protect against market price fluctuations, Xcel Energy said it stores natural gas for use during the heating season, contracting for natural gas in advance, and purchasing financial hedges, which act like insurance to protect customers from significant price changes.
During winter storm Uri in February 2021, Xcel was forced to buy natural gas at record prices over four days that resulted in the company spending $558 million to keep the lights and heat on.
The Colorado Public Utilities Commission, after an investigation into allegations Xcel mismanaged its system and cost ratepayers millions more than it should have, granted permission for Xcel to charge customers $500 million. It also levied an $8 million fine for not notifying customers of the skyrocketing cost of natural gas so they could reduce their energy usage.
In approving the $500 million payback, the Public Utilities Commission also ignored Gov. Jared Polis’ frustration at the enormous bill his constituents will have to pay at a time of soaring inflation. The rate hike frustrated the governor, who said in May he is disappointed that "utility providers are able to balance their financial loss on the backs of consumers, when extra costs could have been avoided by better early warning systems for consumers to voluntarily reduce energy usage.”
Ratepayers will be paying $4.68 per month additional for the next two years or so for the January 2021 freeze.
For its electric customers, the company has a diverse energy mix, with many energy sources that can be used to reduce the effect of natural gas price increases on electric bills. According to the EIA, in 2021, Colorado's net generation from renewable energy accounted for 35% of the state's total generation, with 77% of that being supplied by wind power. Solar power provided 14%.
Xcel Energy released projections in September on how much more consumers would be spending on gas and electric utilities from Oct. 1 through Dec. 31. The company noted that wholesale natural gas prices, which continued to increase, hit a 15-year high, and they were also higher in the third quarter than anticipated, "leading to an under-collection from electric customers.”
Residential ratepayers are paying $3.16 more per month for electricity and $6.01 more for natural gas this quarter over last quarter. Meanwhile, small businesses are paying $4.95 more for electricity and $25.85 more for natural gas the same time period.
Commodity price adjustments happen every quarter, and, in an email, Xcel spokesperson Michelle Aguayo told the Denver Gazette that the new adjustments for January through March 2023 should be available around December 15.
Bill Levis, a consultant for AARP Colorado, said that, in the last year, Xcel has added nearly $69 to the average annual residential customer’s bill, and $62 to small businesses.
These most recent commodity cost adjustments sit atop numerous other rate hikes in the last several years.
Levis said the fees that utilities added to customers' bills as a result of legislation passed by the Colorado General Assembly and signed by Polis amounted to a rate hike for ratepayers of more than 6%, plus a $0.50 charge.
The fees include:
• A fee of 1% is added to fund the renewable energy program requiring utilities to purchase or generate increasing percentages of their electricity from wind, solar or biomass sources by Senate Bill 19-77.
• Xcel is adding a 1% fee to bills to fund the early retirement of Xcel’s troubled Comanche coal powerplant under the Colorado Energy Plan Adjustment.
• Another 0.5% can be imposed for the development of electric vehicle charging stations, the cost of which can be added into base rates.
• A clean energy plan rider instituted by the General Assembly through Senate Bill 19-236 added another 1.5% charge on customer’s annual bill. That fee will be rolled into the utility’s base rate in 2030.
• Investor-owned utilities like Xcel have been collecting a $0.50 charge for energy assistance for the economically disadvantaged since last year that increased to $0.75 in October and will continue to increase based on the consumer price index in October of 2023, based on House Bill 21-1105. Low-income customers can request an exemption from this charge.
• Investor-owned gas utility demand side management programs can be paid for by billing customers without having to file a rate case with the utilities commission — thanks to House Bill 21-1238.
• Natural gas distribution utilities can add a cost recovery up to 2% for all customers to reduce greenhouse gases under Senate Bill 21-264.
• Public utilities can now charge more than the previously-capped 0.25% fee collected from their gross in-state revenues to fund the PUC and Office of Utility Consumer Advocate as a result of Senate Bill 21-272.
Angela Cortez, AARP Colorado communications director, said the energy price hikes are unfair to fixed-income older Coloradans.
“Utility bills are going up next month higher than they’ve ever been before,” Cortez said. “It’s unfair for the most vulnerable among us to take on that type of burden when prices for everything else are at an all-time high. Older adults on fixed incomes and families with low incomes shouldn’t have to shoulder that load.”