Xcel Energy customers face more outages and longer phone wait times. “We have a real problem,” regulators say.
Colorado Sun ^ | May 1, 2025 | Mark Jaffe
Posted on 05/01/2025 5:42:27 AM PDT by george76
Blackouts are becoming longer and more common in Xcel’s Colorado service territory, with 90,000 customers experiencing 6 or more outages in 2024..
Xcel Energy, Colorado’s largest electricity provider, is having increasing difficulty answering customer calls, sending out bills and keeping the lights on, according to two reports by state utility regulators.
Blackouts more than doubled in 2024 and customer complaints have jumped 100% in three years, according to a Colorado Public Utilities Commission briefing Wednesday on outages.
Outages have become more prevalent across Xcel Energy’s service territory which includes zones from the northeast, near Sterling, to Greeley, the Denver metro area, the San Luis Valley, the central mountains and Grand Junction.
In 2024 the average Xcel customer experienced 350 outage minutes, compared to an average of 166 minutes between 2014 and 2023, and more customers were hit with multiple and longer blackouts, according to a PUC staff analysis.
At the same time, customer complaints rose to 1,728 in 2024 from 873 in 2022. The number of customers not receiving bills was up 58% and the time to resolve billing problems stretched to three months. The utility serves 1.5 million people in the state.
A big part of the problem, the commission’s chief economist Erin O’Neill said, was due to a 10% reduction in staff and a 5% cut in the customer service budget between 2022 and 2024. O’Neill noted that electric rates increased 30% over the same period.
“We’re seeing a company before us requesting tens of billions of dollars to buy new things, to do new things when they appear to be falling short of their basic core commitments to the customers that they exist to serve,” Commissioner Megan Gilman said.
Xcel Energy operates in eight states with Colorado and Minnesota its biggest markets. In the first quarter of 2024 it reported $483 million in profit, with Colorado accounting for 53% of earnings – the largest single share.
“This is a regulated monopoly operating in a legally defined service territory where competition is prohibited, and in return for that privilege of operating as a monopoly, they shouldn’t be driving profit at the expense of customers,” PUC Chairman Eric Blank said.
“Aren’t they obligated to act in the public interest and answer the phone and bill customers, and avoid and respond to outages?” Blank asked.
...
The outages, however, have been widespread. One stretch of South Broadway in Denver, with 178 businesses and not on one of the bad feeders, suffered 13 outages in 2024, including one that lasted a day and a half, according to a filing.
At the Waterworks Car Wash, cars were soaped up and moving through the tunnel when the power went out. “We had to manually guide cars out, hand wash them down and give complimentary wash for the inconvenience,” said Marty Krekow, Waterworks’ general manager.
Krekow said there have already been four outages in 2025.
Last July 13, the Colorado Brewers Rendezvous was in full swing in Salida when the power went out at the craft beer festival,
“Vendors were unable to process credit card payments on the busiest day of the festival, resulting in untold losses of revenue,” Salida Mayor Dan Shore said in a letter to the PUC.
“The City of Salida is solely dependent on sales tax revenue and the multitude of outages experienced during the summer directly affected revenue,” Shore said. He listed 14 blackouts over a four-month period, the longest lasting nearly 10 hours.
...
Xcel Energy’s goal of a response to a customer call in 45 seconds was met 75% of the time in 2023, but a year later it had fallen to 45%. The average wait time was 452 seconds, or about 7.5 minutes.
The number of abandoned calls quadrupled with Xcel Energy customers hanging up in 200,000 cases. “They couldn’t wait to get a response from the company,” O’Neill said. There were 100,000 times when customers were auto-disconnected.
TOPICS: Business/Economy; Crime/Corruption; Government; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections; US: Colorado; US: Minnesota
KEYWORDS: blackouts; colorado; electricity; electricityrates; energy; minnesota; spain; xcel; xcelenergy
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1 posted on 05/01/2025 5:42:27 AM PDT by george76
To: george76
Death by DEI
To: george76
From a liberal point of view, no electricity SAVES electricity. Sounds like a great plan for Colorado!
3 posted on 05/01/2025 5:49:16 AM PDT by The Antiyuppie (When small men cast long shadows, it is near the end of the day.)
To: george76
Give the people exactly what they thought they wanted.
4 posted on 05/01/2025 5:50:44 AM PDT by brownsfan (It's going to take real, serious, hard times to wake the American public.)
To: george76
Green Energy Mandates + socialists hostile to profits = shortages and under-investment
5 posted on 05/01/2025 5:50:52 AM PDT by Socon-Econ (adi)
To: wildcard_redneck
Xcel Energy’s automated system auto-disconnected about 100,000 customer calls last year — approximately one in 10 calls.
The PUC investigation noted that while Xcel has cut customer service staff and budget, the company simultaneously increased electricity rates by more than 30%.
This is a regulated monopoly, operating in a legally defined service territory where competition is prohibited,” Commissioner Eric Blank said. “In return for that privilege of operating as a monopoly, they should ..
6 posted on 05/01/2025 5:51:15 AM PDT by george76 (Ward Churchill : Fake Indian, Fake Scholarship, and Fake Art)
To: george76
It’s an “Atlas Shrugged” world.
7 posted on 05/01/2025 5:51:24 AM PDT by ClearCase_guy (People who receive less results for effort will naturally put in less effort when the game is rigged)
To: george76
The power outages are the main problem. It does not need 1k customers calling in the outage to know there is an outage. The reporting should be a simple thing through their website or an app.
8 posted on 05/01/2025 5:58:48 AM PDT by pas
To: Socon-Econ
9 posted on 05/01/2025 5:58:52 AM PDT by george76 (Ward Churchill : Fake Indian, Fake Scholarship, and Fake Art)
To: george76
The utility’s customers are getting what they voted for.
10 posted on 05/01/2025 6:03:54 AM PDT by Socon-Econ (adi)
To: george76
benefit the CEOs and their Hedge fund pals
Plunderers and Looters.
11 posted on 05/01/2025 6:06:26 AM PDT by ClearCase_guy (People who receive less results for effort will naturally put in less effort when the game is rigged)
To: george76
12 posted on 05/01/2025 6:07:05 AM PDT by Tom Tetroxide (Psalm 146:3 "Do not trust in princes, in the Son of Man, who has no salvation.")
To: Tom Tetroxide
39% is loaded answer
Prob to be fair to math, 39% from 9am to 5 pm
Cannot do a 24 hour stat can we?
To: Tom Tetroxide
14 posted on 05/01/2025 6:15:11 AM PDT by Tom Tetroxide (Psalm 146:3 "Do not trust in princes, in the Son of Man, who has no salvation.")
To: pas
The reporting should be a simple thing through their website or an app.
Xcel website works just fine for reporting outages, as does the automated “we already know your power is off so go away” line.
The problem with Xcel in western slope Colorado is EXPENSE with ‘on peak’ charges close to doubling our monthly bill.
15 posted on 05/01/2025 6:54:03 AM PDT by drSteve78 ( Older Je suis Deplorable. Even more so”)
To: Socon-Econ
The leftist pigs who vote for this saturate Denver and are largely immune to the power outages, thus they also don’t care about the phone waits. Wealthier city rats typically don’t feel the consequences of their actions till they have an event similar to the palisades fire.
To: Tom Tetroxide
ERCOT is how republicans participate in the green scams. The spot pricing makes it more profitable to not generate power and create false scarcities. It also disincentivizes building of new power generation. Lawmakers then get to say “we have to get more generation! Let’s subsidize (aka graft to our buddies) generation.” Subsidizing the established players in natural gas doesn’t generate nearly as much kick back so they say “Let’s be green and subsidize wind and solar.”
To: Socon-Econ
Green Energy Mandates + socialists hostile to profits = shortages and under-investment
I also wonder how much illegal tapping into the electrical grid like other 3rd world countries is happening.
18 posted on 05/01/2025 7:43:18 AM PDT by PeterPrinciple (Thinking Caps are no longer being issued, but there must be a warehouse full of them somewhere)
To: The Antiyuppie
Colorado becoming a new Cuba, regulated out of human necessities which are blocked by government overlords. Colorado will be the first state to iniate insect only diets like a bunch of catfish, and living without utilities of any sort: no gas, no power, no gasoline,no cars,no guns,no right to personal defense or thought and no conservatives allowed within state borders.
19 posted on 05/01/2025 7:54:25 AM PDT by Colt1851Navy (What was wrong with Nixon?)
To: pas
“The reporting should be a simple thing through their website or an app.”
tough to do when the power is out ...
20 posted on 05/01/2025 7:56:32 AM PDT by catnipman ((A Vote For The Lesser Of Two Evils Still Counts As A Vote For Evil))
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