Xcel Energy Inc. asked state regulators Monday to raise the amount of money it collects from customers to pay for renewable energy to the full 2 percent of the monthly bill allowed by state law.
Xcel had been charging customers 1.46 percent of their monthly bill. The raise would add 33 cents per month to the typical residential bill, for a total of $1.21 per month. The bills of small businesses would rise 52 cents per month, for a total of $1.93 per month.
Increasing the percentage would raise an extra $13.2 million a year, resulting in a total of about $50 million a year, Xcel spokesman Mark Stutz said.
Xcel (NYSE: XEL) is based in Minneapolis. It is Colorado’s largest utility, serving about 70 percent of the state’s population with natural gas and electricity.
Xcel said more money is needed to pay for solar and wind projects that will help the utility meet both state-mandated and voter-approved goals for using renewable energy resources to generate power. If the request is approved by the Colorado Public Utilities Commission, the higher payment would take effect Jan. 1.
“As we move toward meeting the state mandates for renewable energy in 2009 and beyond, we will need to bring full funding to those efforts, particularly for the solar component that Colorado voters have approved,” Roy Palmer, Xcel’s managing director for government and regulatory affairs, said in a statement.
State law requires that Xcel get 20 percent of the power it sells a year from renewable resources by 2020. The company intends to meet the directive several years early.
