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Xcel Energy files for lower residential natural gas bills

DENVER - Xcel Energy today announced it filed for a lower natural gas base rate for residential customers with the Colorado Public Utilities Commission. The new filing is the second phase of a natural gas rate case where costs are allocated among all customers. The original case was settled in June 2007. The new rate would reduce monthly residential customer bills overall by approximately one-half percent.

“Since the original settlement, we have been working to make our usage rates comparable between transportation customers and commercial sales customers,” said Roy Palmer, executive director of government and regulatory affairs.

The original settlement has been in effect for eight months. Rates are typically designed and costs allocated among different customer classes during this portion of the case. Xcel Energy is proposing to lower the base rate from $0.08768 to $0.04050 per therm for residential customers. However, to better recover the fixed costs of facilities in the ground through its service and facilities charge to residential customers, the company is proposing an increase from $11.07 to $13.88 per month.

The natural gas base rate for small commercial customers would rise from $0.10546 to $0.10804 per therm. The service and facilities charge would also increase from $22.13 to $28.38. As a result, the average commercial customer will see an overall monthly bill increase of about $7.19, to $302.34 per month including gas costs, or about 2.4 percent, based on an average use of 304 therms.