Company-provided noshes at Xcel Energy — coffee, tea, bottled water, bagels and doughnuts — came to about $173,000 last year.
The utility’s Colorado unit included that sum, along with $307,000 for employee-recognition awards and parties, in its application to the state Public Utilities Commission for a $182 million rate increase.
Not so fast, said PUC officials.
In its rebuttal to the rate request from Public Service Company of Colorado, the PUC called for the $480,000 to be jettisoned.
The costs, PUC officials said, “are not appropriate to charge ratepayers and should be absorbed by PSCo’s shareholders.”
Knocking out the bagels and parties won’t make a huge difference in customers’ bills — the money accounts for less than three-tenths of 1 percent of the rate request — but it’s the principle that’s important, said PUC spokesman Terry Bote.
“We are going through rate requests with a fine-tooth comb looking for any inappropriate charge,” Bote said.
Part of the problem is bookkeeping, said Xcel spokesman Joe Fuentes. “We really don’t have a handle on those charges,” he said.
Some of those doughnuts might have gone to crews working round the clock after a tornado smashed into Arvada in July, and some of the bagels may have been munched on by crews departing for Texas to help in hurricane relief.
“The point is we don’t know,” Fuentes said. “We need to do a better job.”
The same goes for employee-recognition awards and events, he said.
Xcel will respond to the PUC analysis in October, before the commission holds public hearings. PUC officials have recommended that Xcel be granted a $46 million rate increase.
PUC officials did note that employee expenses at Xcel in 2008 were down over previous years. The executive holiday dinner was canceled and employees were limited to potluck lunches for the holidays.
Still, how did the bagels and doughnuts find their way into the rate request?
“This is the problem of regulated monopolies,” said William Levis, director of the state Office of Consumer Counsel. “When there is competition, a company may be more careful about what goes into what they charge.
“So we and the PUC staff are there when there’s no competition. We’re there to keep an eye on what they are doing.”
Mark Jaffe: 303-954-1912 or mjaffe@denverpost.com
