Colorado Public Utilities Commission is critical of Xcel Energy's handling of power outages and customer service

Xcel Energy customers are experiencing more power outages for a longer period, according to an investigation by the Colorado Public Utilities Commission. The PUC regulates power companies in the state.

Xcel Energy paid $6.5 million in penalties based on 2024 data, more than 2021-2023 years combined, according to the PUC.

The investigation was customer-focused, according to Erin O'Neill, Public Utilities Commissioner.

"Yes, staff shares the concern that those customer-facing pieces of the quality of service are being neglected," O'Neill said.

The Public Utilities Commission met to review the electrical outages experienced by Xcel Energy customers in 2024 compared to past years. The investigation found that the average customer experienced more than double the total amount of outage time compared to years past. The audit found that the average customer experienced a total of 45 minutes without power in 2024."

Eric Blank from the PUC had harsh criticism after hearing the results.

"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 increase at the expense of customers aren't they obligated to act in the public interest and answer the phone and bill customers avoid and respond to outages," Blank said.

Xcel Energy said in a statement, "Over the past several months, we have been strengthening our infrastructure by testing feeder performance, replacing cables, assessing our substations and more to address these issues."  

The investigation started last September after CBS News Colorado and other media reported on neighborhoods experiencing frequent outages.

Denver City Councilwoman Flor Alvidrez filed a complaint on behalf of 178 businesses and residents in the Baker Neighborhood.  There had also been outages reported in Sterling Ranch, Grand Junction, Platteville and Palisade.

Xcel Energy said, "It's important to note that 2024 was a challenging year due to several extreme weather events in Colorado."  

On April 6, 2024, a windstorm forced Xcel Energy to cut power for safety reasons, mainly in Boulder and along the Front Range.

But wildfire safety operations appeared to account for some but not all of the outages in 2024, the audit found.   

The investigation found that last year stands out as the highest average outage minutes in early every month since 2015.  

"They have to provide reliable service, reasonable customer service, and responsiveness," Megan Gilman, Public Utilities Commissioner, said. "At the same time, we're seeing the 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 customers."

"I'm not sure if those customers need all the new things if we cannot provide the basic core services," Gilman said.

The PUC also conducted an audit of the number of customer complaints about customer calls and billing. This investigation was separate from the outage investigation but was reviewed by the PUC on Wednesday.  The PUC found that service and sales complaints increased nearly 98% over the last 2 years. The PUC says that could be because of layoffs. Xcel Energy's contact center budget in 2024 was 5% below the budget in 2020, the audit found.

"Over a four year period the budget declined, over that same period of time public service electricity rates have increased by over 30%, so a marked difference in attention and sort of where the dollars are being funneled by the company," O'Neill said.

Xcel Energy gets more than a million calls from consumers, according to Xcel Energy data provided to the PUC.

Xcel Energy full statement to CBS News Colorado:

"We work to provide customers reliable, affordable, sustainable, and safe electric service, every day. We recognize that we do not always deliver to the level we set for ourselves. We hold ourselves to a high standard and that is why we continually assess our performance and take steps necessary to improve customer service and satisfaction. From a reliability standpoint, our customers received reliable electric service 99.9% of the time. However, it's important to note that 2024 was a challenging year due to several extreme weather events in Colorado. Over the past several months, we have been strengthening our infrastructure by testing feeder performance, replacing cables, assessing our substations and more to address these issues. Any customer who experienced frequent outages will automatically receive a bill credit in July 2025, as part of our Quality-of-Service Plan. We have also been taking steps to improve our call center and billing performance. We have increased the total number of customer support agents and provided specialized training to address billing issues. Additionally, we are implementing organizational improvements to prevent future billing problems. We are committed to improving and serving our customers with excellence always."