Humanity’s path to avoiding catastrophic global warming, ecosystem collapse, and oppressive pollution may be paved with renewable energy, but the road base is reduced consumption.
Xcel Energy-Colorado has a solid plan to build this path to sustainability, but with the announcement this week that Xcel would seek a $171 million natural gas rate increase, it’s time to revisit the company’s dedication to building a strong foundation for its wind and solar projects by helping customers reduce consumption, especially of natural gas.
The Denver Post’s Judith Kohler reported last week on three Xcel customers who at first met roadblocks when trying to get their natural gas meters disconnected so they could stop paying Xcel’s monthly charges for natural gas that are not based on the amount of gas used.
The customers in the story consciously moved away from natural gas in their homes. Known as beneficial electrification, the movement holds that using electricity emits far fewer heat-trapping gases than burning natural gas directly in a home. Burning gas in individual furnaces, hot water heaters, stoves, and fireplaces is far more inefficient than instead using electricity generated by large gas-fired turbines. The customers spent thousands purchasing equipment for their homes that use electricity instead of gas.
Xcel’s opportunity is golden at this moment to prove critics wrong who fear the company’s warm embrace of renewable energy is only about profits.
Xcel Energy Colorado already took the most important step; as of Feb. 1, the company will no longer charge customers for the costs of disconnecting from Xcel’s natural gas system, according to Xcel Energy spokesman Tyler Byrant.
It’s a policy that is in line with the intent of a small portion of Senate Bill 291, which Senate President Steve Fenberg and Sen. Lisa Cutter ushered through the legislative process in 2023 to increase the regulation of investor-owned utilities like Xcel.
Changes like those made in Senate Bill 291 represent the existing whack-a-mole approach to regulating utilities across America, while a growing number of voices are calling for public utilities commissions and lawmakers to make fundamental changes to how utilities bill customers.
The problem is clear in Kohler’s reporting — Xcel says it won’t charge customers thousands of dollars to disconnect their gas lines; instead, the company will pass those costs on to all the other natural gas customers still hooked up to the system.
In 2022 Xcel laid out an ambitious plan — the Net-Zero vision for Natural Gas. The plan targets preventing leaks in the natural gas delivery system, particularly to prevent the potent gas methane from leaking into the atmosphere. But the plan also calls for expanding natural gas conservation programs and providing “affordable and effective options for customers interested in advanced electric appliances.”
Part of that commitment has to be not punishing customers for reducing their use of gas to zero but also not punishing the customer’s neighbors for the beneficial electrification either.
The 2023 law prohibits an investor-owned utility like Xcel from penalizing a customer or charging a fee if the customer voluntarily halts gas service.
It could be consider a loophole for a utility to instead pass on the costs of cutting service to all their other customers. Xcel has captive customers and provides an essential service, so penalizing other rate-payers on the rare occasion they do lose a natural gas customer is highly inappropriate.
Xcel Energy Colorado is a market leader in the transition away from fossil fuels. The company has invested billions and will invest billions more in wind and solar projects that generate clean electricity for its 1.5 million users. There are plans for expensive transmission lines, and explorations of battery storage and hydro-electric storage. All the while, Xcel could get a guaranteed 10.25% return on its investments for these projects.
What Xcel should definitely not be able to still profit from is the reduced consumption of natural gas or electricity. The burden of losing customers must fall to the shareholders.
Sign up for Sound Off to get a weekly roundup of our columns, editorials and more.
To send a letter to the editor about this article, submit online or check out our guidelines for how to submit by email or mail.
