Xcel Energy — rebuffed by state regulators in its bid to get a $100 million interim electricity-rate hike — is now seeking a $42 million interim increase.
On Wednesday, the Colorado Public Utilities Commission rejected Xcel’s $100 million rate request.
The commissioners said the utility had failed to show that waiting for a ruling on its full $142 million rate request — a process that could take seven months — would hurt the utility financially.
Late Thursday, Xcel filed for a rehearing and reconsideration of an interim rate hike of $42 million.
The commission will likely take up the request for reconsideration this week, said Terry Bote, a PUC spokesman.
In its $100 million rate request, Xcel included a wide range of expenses, such as pensions and property taxes.
In the reconsideration request, Xcel focused on one expense: absorbing 300 megawatts of generation Xcel had been selling to Black Hills Energy, which serves Pueblo and southeastern Colorado.
Xcel let the wholesale-power contract lapse, planning to use the power for its customers. But it’s taking on the power generation at a time when it already has excess capacity.
Xcel says the total cost of the excess capacity is $53 million; it is seeking $42 million of that as an interim rate.
“Such relief is justified by the unusual and sudden cost impact resulting from the expiration of this large wholesale power sales agreement,” Xcel said in its filing.
Xcel’s two largest customers — Rocky Mountain Steel and Climax Molybdenum Co. — in a joint PUC filing questioned “whether retail customers should bear the full burden of what apparently turned out to be a bad decision.”
They also said this was not “sudden” since Xcel made the decision several years ago to let the contract lapse.
Mark Jaffe: 303-954-1912 or mjaffe@denverpost.com
