Xcel Energy is nearing an agreement to modify a controversial rate-hike proposal that would have increased customers’ natural-gas bills by $34.5 million a year.
Terms of the settlement have not been announced, but it is expected to inflict a lesser increase on consumers than the one requested by Xcel in a May filing with the Public Utilities Commission.
The rate filing differs from Xcel’s typical monthly adjustments on natural-gas prices, in which the utility passes through cost changes to consumers without taking additional profit.
The May filing called for a $34.5 million annual increase that would go into Xcel’s coffers. The utility said the increase is needed to support the cost of maintaining and expanding its natural-gas delivery system.
Xcel also said it needs to collect more for natural-gas service because consumers over the past several years have been using less gas as they improve their homes’ energy efficiency and turn down their thermostats during winter cold spells.
Consumer-advocacy groups said they oppose the rate filing because it would disproportionately burden residential customers while allowing commercial customers to shoulder a lesser share of the increase.
“If you look at seniors and disabled people, and the rising costs of medical care and food, this rate hike is like the Grinch that stole Christmas,” said Morie Pierce, a Colorado spokeswoman for AARP, the senior-citizen lobby.
The rate-hike proposal generated additional frosty responses Monday at a public hearing before the state’s utility commissioners attended by about 60 people.
“It could present an undue burden for those who are on fixed incomes,” said James Watts, a disabled Denver resident who attended the hearing with his wife Sandra, also disabled.
The multimillion-dollar retirement package for recently retired Xcel chief executive Wayne Brunetti was a focal point for several speakers at the hearing.
“That’s outlandishly ridiculous,” said Douglas County resident Bernard Moore, referring to Brunetti’s $4 million payment for six months of consulting services, plus $1 million a year in retirement pay.
“This is white-collar thievery,” Moore told the commissioners. “Please do something about Xcel. It’s your responsibility.”
Xcel officials declined to testify at the Monday public hearing.
In an interview before the hearing, Xcel spokesman Tom Henley said the utility has invested $328 million in its gas delivery system since it last increased base natural-gas rates in 2000. Xcel needs to recover the cost of providing new gas service to an average of 33,400 customers a year, Henley said.
Under current utility rates, Xcel’s residential customers pay a fixed monthly fee of $8.54 for natural-gas service, regardless of how much gas they use.
The new Xcel proposal would increase the monthly fixed fee to $13.14. That increase would be partly offset by a decrease in charges for gas delivery, from 9.3 cents per therm to 5.3 cents.
The typical home uses about 825 therms a year.
Customers also pay 88 cents a therm for natural-gas fuel costs, which are not part of Xcel’s current rate filing.
Xcel has estimated that under the new proposed rate increase, residential gas bills would rise by about $23 a year.
Gas bills for commercial customers would rise by an average of $101 a year. But because Xcel has about 10 times as many residential customers as commercial customers, homeowners would shoulder a proportionately higher share of the requested increase.
Staff writer Steve Raabe can be reached at 303-820-1948 or at sraabe@denverpost.com.
