Colorado regulators will hear Xcel’s $2 billion customer-program plan

The Colorado Public Utilities Commission voted Wednesday to hear Public Service Company of Colorado’s roughly $2 billion plan for energy efficiency, clean heat, transportation electrification and other customer programs before the full commission rather than an administrative law judge.

The decision opened proceeding 26A-0263EG, which Xcel filed July 1 for programs running from 2027 through 2030. The commission’s action and the company’s presentation are recorded in the Aug. 12 commission meeting.

The proposal combines programs previously handled through separate demand-side-management, clean-heat and transportation-electrification proceedings. It includes energy efficiency and demand management, beneficial electrification, transportation charging and vehicle incentives, income-qualified and disproportionately impacted-community programs, expanded innovation funds, on-bill financing and a dynamic-rate option.

The Colorado PUC’s summary of the Integrated Customer Programs plan lists approximately $2.016 billion in spending over four years:

• $738 million for electric energy efficiency and demand management;
• $897 million for clean-heat programs;
• $226 million for transportation electrification;
• $123 million for innovation funds; and
• $32 million for administration and other filing-wide costs.

About $133 million of the 2027 clean-heat amount — including $123 million in program costs and $10 million for recovered-methane contracts — had already been approved in an earlier proceeding, according to the PUC. Xcel’s public filing summary says about 76% of the overall proposal would support customer-facing programs, rebates and services.

The application would replace several existing electric and gas cost-recovery mechanisms with integrated-program adjustments. Xcel estimates that it would increase annual revenue requirements by about $81 million for electric service and $30 million for gas service.

Xcel projects that by 2030 residential electric customers would pay about $2 more per month — roughly a 1.9% increase in total monthly bills — while gas customers would pay about $5 more, or roughly 8.2% more. The PUC cautions that the percentages are illustrative and could change during the proceeding.

The company also projects that the programs would save about 1,200 megawatts of generation capacity, 1,400 gigawatt-hours of electricity and 4.9 million dekatherms of gas, while producing $3.8 billion in avoided costs and avoiding 10.8 million metric tons of carbon-dioxide-equivalent emissions. Those are Xcel’s projections, not commission findings.

The PUC granted intervention to 15 groups representing 23 organizations, in addition to intervention as of right by Commission Trial Staff, the Colorado Energy Office and the Office of Utility Consumer Advocate. The intervenors include local governments, consumer advocates, environmental and climate organizations, clean-energy and efficiency groups, labor, businesses and energy associations. No party opposed the intervention motions, but the decision did not establish that the groups support the plan or agree that its costs are justified by its projected benefits.

The PUC and Xcel materials reviewed for this story did not provide a complete dollar breakdown by customer class beyond the separate electric and gas revenue estimates and residential bill percentages. They also did not include a publicly verifiable intervenor statement weighing the plan’s costs against its benefits. The docket may contain testimony or filings addressing those questions.

The commission said the application would be automatically deemed complete Aug. 24. Advisers and counsel were expected to return the following week to discuss information requests, supplemental direct testimony and schedule guidance. The PUC’s public timetable anticipated public-comment hearings in August 2026 and a final commission decision in April 2027, but the Aug. 12 record did not set specific evidentiary or public-comment hearing dates. If approved, the plan would be implemented beginning with the 2027 program year.