Increased costs of natural gas and rising demand for power generation during the cold winter months led to the balance, the company said. This filing of the quarterly electric commodity adjustment (ECA) is expected to increase residential and small-business customer bills by about 8% from current bills.
The company has filed its rider with the Colorado Public Utilities Commission and if approved, it would go into effect from April 1, 2010. Costs associated with increases or decreases through the ECA are passed along to customers on a dollar-per-dollar basis, Xcel Energy said.
For typical residential customers using 632kWh a month, current bills will increase by $5.18 a month to $71.53. Typical small-business customers using 1,123kWh a month would see current bills rise by $9.21 a month to $122.41.
Xcel Energy is a US-based electricity and natural gas company with regulated operations in eight Western and Midwestern states.
