CHARGERS

charging when demand on the grid is low; and public outreach.

“Transportation is the largest source of carbon emissions in the United States and our EV vision complements our net-zero carbon emissions goal for 2050,” Xcel spokeswoman Michelle Aguayo said in an email.

e goal is to provide everyone in communities served by Xcel “the bene ts of electric transportation, whether they own an EV, use public transit or bene t from improved air quality,” Aguayo added.

Xcel Energy recovers its costs of electri cation through a rider on customers’ bills. Aguayo said the new plan will increase the average residential electric bill by 77 cents a month.

However, Xcel’s large commercial and industrial customers will see average monthly increases of $15.

In the long run, Xcel customers will bene t from more electric vehicles tapping into the grid, said Travis Madsen, transportation program director for the Southwest Energy E ciency Project. People charging at home usually plug in their cars at night or when demand is low and there’s excess capacity on the system.

“In e ect, we’re using our electric system more e ciently. We’ve already invested in these power plants, the wires and the transformers and whatnot,” Madsen said.

Electric vehicle drivers are putting more money into the electric system, which will help lower everyone’s rates, Madsen said.

A study by Synapse Energy Economics said customers with EVs in three of the utility service areas with the most electric vehicles in the U.S. contributed more than $1.7 billion in net revenue between 2012 and 2021. e result has been “downward pressure” on electric rates, the study said.

Fueling competition or not?

Bill Levis, an AARP Colorado volunteer, has a di erent viewpoint. He testi ed against a 2019 law in part because it allowed utilities to cover the costs of building chargers by increasing the rate base, the basic rate customers pay. e law cleared the way for electric utilities to supply public charging stations and, with approval of the PUC, recover their costs.

Levis, the former head of what is now the Colorado O ce of the

Utility Consumer Advocate, said AARP Colorado remains opposed to utilities adding the expense to the rate base.

“Putting it in the rate base means that those on xed incomes and lower income people who can’t a ord EVs would end up paying for subsidized charging stations,” Levis said in an email.

In addition, because regulators authorize set rates of return for the investments that utilities make, it gives them an unfair advantage in the marketplace, Levis said.

“If Xcel is looking to get ratepayers to subsidize their own investment, it will distort markets to such a degree that retailers who today are strongly considering installing EV charger stations would abandon that e ort,” said David Fialkov with the National Association of Truck Stop Operators. e association has weighed in on utilities proposing to build and run EV chargers in other states. One of those states is Minnesota, where Xcel Energy is based and where it recently withdrew a transportation electri cation plan.

Xcel withdrew a clean transportation plan in early June after it got a lower rate increase than it sought from the Minnesota Public Utility Commission. e Star Tribune in Minneapolis reported that Xcel had proposed building and owning 730 EV fast chargers in the state. e Minnesota Department of Commerce said in a document to the utilities commission that it’s encouraging Xcel to review how it can help develop the state’s EV infrastructure. e department said Xcel “has not shown that it can build, operate, and maintain even the limited number” of the fast-charging stations it has been approved to build. is Denver Post story via e Associated Press’ Storyshare, of which Colorado Community Media is a member.

Xcel Energy spokeswoman Aguayo said the company is evaluating its next steps and will submit another transportation plan to Minnesota regulators in November.

Fialkov said his organization and businesses don’t oppose Xcel Energy and utilities building EV chargers “on their own dime” or in areas where private businesses might not be willing to build.

“A lot of companies are looking at applying for federal grants to install EV chargers and if Xcel continues down the path it’s intending to go on, those plans will be abandoned and Colorado will be left behind,” Fialkov said.