The Colorado Public Utilities Commission Wednesday took a swipe at how Xcel Energy argues its rates impact consumers’ wallets.
Xcel Energy, the state’s largest electricity provider, maintains that its rates are affordable citing the fact that its 1.6 million customers on average pay less than 1% of their incomes — the share of wallet — for electricity. That, the company says, is half the national average.
The Colorado Office of the Utility Consumer Advocate contends that the share is so low because the median Colorado household income, between $97,000 and $106,000, is among the highest in the country.
“There’s no perfect metric,” Robert Kenney, CEO of Xcel Energy’s Colorado subsidiary, said in a recent interview with the Sun. “Customers don’t pay rates, they pay a bill. And so that’s why we’ve been focused on where our bills stand as a percentage comparison to the rest of the country.”
PUC commissioners had some qualms Wednesday about wallet share even as they analyzed and modified a proposed $225 million electric rate increase that would raise the average monthly bill, about 601 kilowatt-hours, to nearly $111 from $104.68.
Eric Blank, the commission chairman, said that wallet share is “a one-time snapshot and not representative of long-term rate impact” as new rates pile on one another or “pancake.”
A better measure of affordability Blank said would be the change in average residential rates over time.
“With wallet share, when they are using the number generically across their rate base,” Commissioner Tom Plant said, “… the percentage of wallet share is kind of a meaningless number.”
“That’s what I want to say,” Blank said.
“It is kind of like if Elon Musk walks into a bar in La Junta, the average income of everybody in the bar is over a billion dollars, which doesn’t really tell you anything,” Plant said.
Since September 2023, Xcel Energy’s Colorado electricity rates have risen eight times — including the current rate hike — for a total increase of about 22%, according to the PUC staff. In 2025, the company began using the share of wallet to show that its rates weren’t a burden to customers.