Published November 10, 2021 Minnesota Power, the company that provides power to Duluth and portions of northeast and north central Minnesota, is asking to charge customers an additional $108 million more each year. If approved, Minnesota Power says the request would mean a rate hike of 18.22%, or about $15 a month for a typical…
November 1, 2021 Star Tribune Mike Hughlett Minnesota’s largest natural-gas providers — CenterPoint Energy and Xcel Energy — Monday asked regulators for a rate increase of about 6.5 %, in standard requests that this year would add to costs that are already soaring for other reasons. Sharp increases in the commodity cost of gas are…
November 1, 2021 Star Tribune Jana Hollingsworth DULUTH – Minnesota Power on Monday proposed to state regulators an electricity rate increase of 17.58%, or $108 million. The Duluth-based utility’s typical residential customers would see an increase of about $15 a month, and small business customers an increase of $55 a month. The company requested an…
Published November 2, 2021 Many Minnesotans have recently seen, or will soon see, their natural gas bills dramatically increase. This presents a huge concern for many households – particularly those already struggling to make ends meet in the midst of an ongoing global pandemic. There are a few reasons for these bill increases. First, natural…
Published November 1, 2021 Xcel Energy is asking state regulators to charge its Minnesota electric customers an additional $677 million each year, increasing revenues by 21.2% over three years. Xcel’s rate increase request must be approved by the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission (PUC), and utilities almost never get the full increase that they ask for….
October 26, 2021 KARE11 Kent Erdahl MINNEAPOLIS — Minnesotans are already bracing for big jumps in heating costs this winter, and now the state’s largest electricity provider, Xcel Energy, is requesting a rate increase of around 20% over the next three years. Xcel is requesting an electricity rate increase of 21.2%, or $677.4 million, between…
Published October 6, 2021 In recent weeks, CUB has received a lot of phone calls from concerned consumers who have experienced, or are currently facing, utility service disconnections. Some of these consumers are concerned about being disconnected while they are waiting to receive financial assistance for rent and overdue utility bills through the RentHelpMN program….
Published September 8, 2021 It will be a busy fall at the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission. This blog post provides a brief overview of the policy and regulatory work CUB expects to be involved in over the next several months. There are already numerous complex dockets underway before the Commission, including several unique dockets arising…
Published August 11, 2021 Over President’s Day Weekend 2021, four of Minnesota’s natural gas utilities (CenterPoint, Xcel, MERC, and Great Plains) collectively incurred hundreds of millions of dollars in extraordinary costs providing natural gas to their Minnesota customers. Normally, extraordinary costs (those that exceed what utilities had budgeted for when setting rates) are passed through…
Published June 28, 2021. Updated July 7, 2021 with information about comment process. On Friday, Xcel Energy announced that it was no longer pursuing its proposed natural gas power plant in Sherburne County (the “Sherco plant”). Xcel said it heard strong opposition to the plant (including from CUB) and took another look to find an…
