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Xcel report paints grim economic view

Gargi Chakrabarty

Published August 1, 2008 at 9:39 p.m.

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Xcel Energy's bill collection report filed Friday paints an alarming picture of how skyrocketing energy prices and a slowing economy are impacting the utility and its 1.43 million residential Colorado customers.

* Gas and electric shut-offs are expected to jump 35 percent this year to 72,000 from 53,227 in 2007.

* Xcel wrote off $28.4 million in unpaid bills in 2007, and $10 million in the first six months of this year. The write-offs are rolled into rates that Xcel charges the rest of its paying customers.

* As of May 1, Xcel had to recover a hefty $128 million from customers late by one day or more. That compares to $95 million owed on past due bills as of Oct. 1, 2007.

* As of May 1, nearly one-third of its total residential customers - or 449,719 customers - were one day or more behind in paying their utility bills, more or less the same from Oct. 1, 2007.

"What this report shows is that across the board, rising prices have made it much more difficult for all of the company's residential customers to pay for the cost of home energy," said Skip Arnold, executive director of Denver nonprofit Energy Outreach Colorado.

Colorado homeowners likely will pay 20 percent more to heat their homes this winter. Low-income families will be hit harder - they will pay 44 percent more, largely because the need will exceed the amount of available energy assistance dollars.

"The low-income customers identified in the study all received utility assistance and even with that, low-income seniors families and disabled people had their service discontinued at more than twice the rate of other residential customers," Arnold added.

For instance, the report shows 52,683 customers were low-income seniors or disabled who received energy assistance last year. Of those, 3,884 customers, or 7.5 percent, got disconnected, Arnold said.

Customers who have good credit with Xcel get a reminder notice 33 days after the original due date and a disconnect notice 64 days after the missed due date. Customers with poor credit receive a disconnect notice 31 days after a missed due date.

"There are two groups of customers, those who can't pay and those who don't pay," said Xcel spokesman Mark Stutz. "That's a distinction we have to make every day."

Referring to the report's delinquent customers, Stutz said the numbers were "somewhat misleading since a vast majority of the customers eventually catch up before they receive a disconnection notice."

"Still, it is a concern," Stutz said. "It is somewhat a reflection of the economic times."

Comments

  • August 2, 2008

    2:21 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    mrfxx writes:

    Let's have a pity party for Xcel, which just announced "Xcel's 2Q profit rises 53 percent" (see http://www.twincities.com/movies/ci_1...) and which just raised Colorado's natural gas rates 38% courtesy of PUC's rubber stamp (would they have raised natural gas rates that much if PUC hadn't allowed them to build the pipelines to send Colorado's natural gas to the highest bidder - and which ultimately we Coloradans paid for?). Wait - the GOP mantra of "supply and demand" - I keep forgetting that a PUBLIC utility should be allowed to have customers freeze to death for profit.

    I believe that any public utility should NOT be allowed to waste money on advertising (after all, are we allowed to change utility companies for the best deal - and why should Coloradan's be paying for the naming rights of the Xcel Center - IN MINNESOTA?). I don't care if it is only 1/10% of the budget (and I have no clue how much it is) - it's a waste of money unless/until we can pick and choose among suppliers.