As someone who cares deeply about the future of our planet, I converted my 1963 home in Boulder from gas to all electric. The install went smoothly, the problem was the 7 \u00bd month ordeal Xcel Energy put me through to disconnect the gas.<\/p>\n
First, Xcel had no simple form for canceling gas service due to electrification. Next, Xcel contacted me saying it would charge $5,333 for disconnecting. Xcel only stopped attempting to charge me when front page articles featuring my story<\/a> and that of others who were penalized in this way for discontinuing gas service appeared.<\/p>\n The next day, Xcel came to remove my gas meter, and I was not charged.\u00a0 However, the saga didn\u2019t end here. Just as some patients who lose a limb continue to feel phantom pain, Xcel began charging me for phantom gas — estimated charges of up to $100 per month because it could no longer read the meter that Xcel had removed. I was threatened with collection action because I refused to pay for gas that I was not, and could not possibly be, using. Finally, when I called the customer service line to pay my bill, the automatic system put me on hold saying, \u201cYou must talk to an agent about reconnecting [to gas].\u201d<\/p>\n Any private company in a competitive market would not survive such poor customer service. But Xcel is not a private company. Xcel is a \u201cregulated monopoly.\u201d That means we customers have no choices if we are in Xcel\u2019s exclusive franchise territories. Our utility system allows Xcel to make profits by building infrastructure and then receiving a guaranteed rate of return on that infrastructure through customer rates. Consequently, it is no surprise to read that Xcel is planning to add about $22 billion of capital investments<\/a> in Colorado and that customer rates will increase up to 2.5% per year.<\/p>\n Here is the frustrating part. The new cleaner resources that Xcel is planning to build, such as solar and wind, are actually less expensive to build and run<\/a> than the old infrastructure they are replacing, such as coal plants. A private company would probably switch simply to save money.\u00a0 \u00a0And if a private company had made poor previous investment decisions by building now nonprofitable resources, that company would eat the losses, not its customers who have the option of leaving and going to a competitor without penalty.<\/p>\n Instead, Xcel is forcing its customers to eat the costs of its poor decisions while its shareholders have seen steady increases in profits over the last years — with over 10% increase in gross profits between 2021 and 2022<\/a>.<\/p>\n Xcel should not be able to charge its captive customers for reduced consumption of its product.\u00a0 A private company would not have this option, and the high guaranteed rate of return set by the PUC protects Xcel from market risks.\u00a0 Private companies would salivate for a similar return-rate cushion.<\/p>\n