Xcel Energy

A sign displays the names of the state's three elected public utilities commissioners outside of their Pierre office in January 2023. (South Dakota Searchlight/Joshua Haiar)

Regulators reduce Xcel’s 18% electric rate hike to 6%

BY: - June 6, 2023

A state regulatory agency is limiting a utility company’s electric rate increase to about 6% after the company requested a nearly 18% rate hike. The change affects 97,500 South Dakota customers. The 18% rate hike has been temporarily in effect for the last six months after an initial deadline passed for the regulatory agency, the […]

A sign displays the names of the state's three elected public utilities commissioners outside of their Pierre office in January 2023. (South Dakota Searchlight/Joshua Haiar)

Some utilities charge customers for donations and events, with regulator approval

BY: - January 25, 2023

Last October, hundreds of politicians and business leaders from all over the country gathered to be wined, dined and guided into eastern South Dakota grasslands for a pheasant hunt with the governor.  “There’s a lot of schmoozing that goes on,” said John Cooper, a former secretary of Game, Fish and Parks who’s attended 15 of […]

Utility companies are spending billions building out transmission and distribution lines around the country, leading some to call for an independent monitor to protect customers.

Xcel raising electric rates 18 percent as state regulators take no action at initial deadline

BY: - December 7, 2022

A company that provides electricity to nearly 100,000 South Dakota customers will raise its rates by about 18 percent next month as an initial deadline passes for a state regulatory agency to act on the increase. Xcel Energy will increase its electricity rates by 17.9 percent, starting Jan. 1. That’s a jump of $19.60 per […]