High prices for natural gas have left more Xcel Energy customers out in the cold with utility disconnections, but the number is nowhere near a record.
Xcel disconnected 7,942 Colorado customers in the fourth quarter of 2005 because of delinquent bills, compared with 6,022 in the same period of 2004.
Xcel officials said the total number of disconnections could have been much higher than the 32 percent increase, but the utility has been more forgiving this fall and winter about its shut-off policies because of record-high utility bills.
“We will not disconnect anyone this winter if they stay in touch with us and work out a payment plan,” said Xcel spokesman Tom Henley.
Of the 7,942 shutoffs, 5,163 customers have been reconnected after paying past-due bills and reconnection fees. Customers are charged $42 to reconnect suspended gas service and $33 for electric service – or $67 for both.
Xcel’s guidelines allow customers a grace period of at least 64 days after a bill’s due date before a disconnection notice is sent, then an additional 10 days before a disconnection takes place.
“We try to avoid shut-offs because they are a lose-lose for both the customers and the company,” said Xcel spokesman Mark Stutz.
In the fourth quarter of 2003, Xcel shut off 18,057 Colorado customers for delinquent bills. The company said its disconnect policy then was more strict.
Heating bills averaged $158 a month in December for a typical Colorado home, compared with $104 in December 2003. Xcel serves 1.3 million customers in Colorado.
Some rate relief may be coming for customers after Xcel today files a monthly natural-gas cost report with the Public Utilities Commission. The report, covering projected February gas-acquisition costs, is expected to reflect falling natural-gas prices and less projected heating use in February than in January.
The exact cost filing is not known; however, such costs are passed through to customer bills without a profit or a loss to Xcel.
High energy costs in the fall and winter have prompted a record 92,000 Coloradans to apply for low-income energy assistance, a 14 percent increase from the 2004-05 fall and winter, said Glenn Cooper, director of the Colorado Low Income Energy Assistance Program.
Recipients of financial assistance receive an automatic 60-day hold on utility shut- offs.
“But it’s possible that we may just be forestalling the inevitable,” Cooper said, with a potential surge in disconnections coming in the first quarter of 2006 after the 60-day hold runs out.
Staff writer Steve Raabe can be reached at 303-820-1948 or sraabe@denverpost.com.
Xcel kinder, gentler about overdue bills
The number of Xcel Energy customers in Colorado who lost service because of delinquent bills rose in the fourth quarter of 2005. But the number is much lower than the same period in 2003, Xcel says, because its current policies are more lenient. Comparing fourth-quarter figures for the last three years:
7,942 Fourth quarter 2005
6,022 Fourth quarter 2004
18,057 Fourth quarter 2003
Source: Xcel Energy
