January 08, 2026 10:30 AM UTC

Xcel Energy: Not Reading the Room

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• by: Colorado Pols

THURSDAY UPDATE: As Judith Kohler reports for The Denver Post:

The Utility Consumer Advocate, which represents the public before state regulators, has criticized Xcel’s rate increases in recent years. Joseph Pereira, UCA deputy director, assailed the company’s request for higher electric rates as too big given current economic conditions and questioned Xcel’s investment decisions…

…“This increase is a significant increase and it’s a significant increase within the context of all the other spending that the company is doing. It matters that it is filed at the same time as an electric rate case,” Pereira said. “It’s an ever-growing pancake stack of rates.” [Pols emphasis]

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We took note back in November that Xcel Energy had filed a request with the Colorado Public Utilities Commission (PUC) for permission to raise electricity rates for consumers by 10%. That increase, if approved, would lead to a new average monthly bill of $110 so that Coloradans could keep lights on and phones charged.

Experts said at the time that a 10% rate increase for electricity was excessive, which is no doubt why Xcel tried to bury their request in the news desert that began on the Friday before Thanksgiving. In case you missed it last week, Xcel made another Holiday week request to increase utility rates. As Mark Jaffe reported for The Colorado Sun on December 30:

Xcel Energy is aiming to raise its gas customers’ bills by an average $7.59 a month — for a total of $190 million — to pay for safety improvements, rising operating and maintenance costs and investor returns.

The company filed the proposed rate hike with the Colorado Public Utilities Commission on Monday, Dec. 29.

The rate request comes a little more than a month after Xcel Energy filed for a $356 million electric rate increase, which would raise the average residential electric bill 10% to $110 a month.

In late November, the PUC also approved a $155 million plan to deal with potential gas shortages at the ends of its Eastern Mountain Gas System in Summit and Grand counties, a portion of which will also be paid for by all gas customers.

Xcel Energy, Colorado’s largest utility, has 1.5 million gas customers and 1.6 million electricity customers, with 1.1 million taking both gas and electric service.

The two rate cases are seeking more than half a billion dollars from Xcel Energy customers. [Pols emphasis]

These requests are — in a word — absurd:

“This filing in addition to an electric rate increase is a test of customers’ and decision-makers’ will,” said Joseph Pereira, the deputy director of the Colorado Office of the Utility Consumer Advocate.

“An action like this is completely out of touch with the situation on the ground, unless they have ventured to test the limits of the system,” Pereira said. “The company is on a massive spending spree.” The UCA represents residential and small commercial customers in rate cases.

Xcel is attempting to gouge consumers in Colorado in order to pay for its own infrastructure improvements so that it can continue to rake in massive profits without worrying about its own expenses. This is not a new idea, but Xcel is not reading the room as more Americans are voicing opposition to footing the bill for energy companies looking to expand in part to attract the business of big data centers. Xcel is certainly not struggling financially after reporting $1.94 BILLION in profits for 2024; this marked a 9.3% increase from 2023, when Xcel famously tripled energy prices.

As The Washington Post reports today, Xcel should be wary of the blowback that energy providers are facing across the country:

From Archibald, Pennsylvania, to Page, Arizona, tech firms are seeking to plunk down data centers in locations that sometimes are not zoned for such heavy industrial uses, within communities that had not planned for them. These supersize data centers can use more energy than entire cities and drain local water supplies.

Anger over the perceived trampling of communities by Silicon Valley has entered the national political conversation and could affect voters of all political persuasions in this year’s midterm elections.

As the Post continues, even Energy Secretary Chris Wright is warning utilities that “they are losing control of the narrative”:

“In rural America right now, where data centers are being built, everyone’s already angry because their electricity prices have risen a lot,” he told energy executives assembled in Washington for the North American Gas Forum last month. “‘I don’t want them in my state’ is a common viewpoint.”

We noted back in November that holding the line on allowing energy providers to pump consumers for infrastructure buildout isn’t just good policy — it’s good politics. This is especially true as voters grow increasingly concerned about a struggling economy and rising prices while the Trump administration focuses more on which country to invade next.

Colorado consumers should be speaking up to the PUC, which in turn should tell Xcel to pound sand and pay for its own improvements. Politicians on both sides of the aisle would be wise to be singing the same song in 2026.