CASTLE ROCK, Colo. — There is a utility company in Colorado that made hundreds of millions of dollars in profit last year.
Today, that utility received approval to increase customer bills, so that low-income customers can have their bills paid.
No, it is not the utility company you are thinking about.
Black Hills Energy provides gas service for customers outside of the metro area, in places like Castle Rock, Erie, Frederick, Dacono, Aspen, Glenwood Springs, Montrose, Rocky Ford, Burlington and Yuma.
The company made $262 million in profit in 2023. On Wednesday, Black Hills got approval from state regulators to increase customer bills $924,000 a year to help pay the bills for low-income customers who cannot afford their bills.
The line item for energy assistance will increase for all customers.
For residential customers it goes up from four cents to 30 cents. That is literally 26 pennies, but it is also a 650% increase.
It is the same 650% increase for large commercial customers whose line item goes up from 64 cents to $4.50.
Black Hills will raise the rates to get customers off a waitlist and allow the number of people on energy assistance to increase from 2,000 to 3,000 customers.
The Colorado Public Utilities Commission (PUC) approved those changes on Wednesday, even after PUC staff said they had to meet with Black Hills five times and trade several emails over concerns about the company’s projections on energy assistance into the future.
“I agree with your recommendation. I think it’s a prudent way to move forward, but yikes on your, I think, the necessity to have to meet with them five times to get to the bottom of what’s going on with this program,” PUC Commissioner Megan Gilman said.
The PUC staff also told commissioners that, in 2019, Black Hills requested to reduce the energy assistance fee because the company was collecting more than it needed.
“As I understand, there were actual circumstances of them being overfunded, yet still running a waitlist that they did not move people off and fund with assistance, and that just can’t be how this works,” Gilman said.
The PUC staff said that Black Hills agreed to manage the funds better and provide regular updates with the commission.
“My focus is on ensuring that everyone who needs assistance and qualifies for assistance is able to, without much time or drama, be able to get the assistance that these programs are intended to provide,” Gilman said. “I think it’s fine to increase it, but concerned with a lot of how this looks like it’s been run in the past.”
Black Hills will get the additional $924,000 a year, which is 0.3% of the $262 million profit it made last year.
Black Hills also has a nonprofit foundation called Black Hills Corp. Foundation and a program called Black Hills Cares. According to a Black Hills Energy spokeswoman, the company provided $697,000 in energy assistance through that foundation. That dollar amount is from all eight states that Black Hills services. The spokeswoman said that the Colorado-specific dollar amount would not be available until next month when the 2023 sustainability report is released.
According to the Black Hills website, “In the past 15 years, Black Hills Cares provided more than $8.4 million in customer, employee and company donations to assist those in need.” Though, it did not say how much was specifically from customers, employees and company donations.
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