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Colorado rates and regulatory information

Colorado electric

Tariff and regulatory documents

A tariff is a group of schedules filed with our regulatory commissions. Tariffs contain basic rates, supplemental rates or riders, and general terms and conditions for providing utility service.

The rates don’t apply to a residence used for commercial, professional or business activities. But if the domestic use can be separately metered from the business activities, then these rates would apply to the domestic part.

We consider a single-family dwelling one in which four sleeping rooms or more are rented or are available for rent as non-domestic, and the applicable general service rate applies.

We’ve filed a rate review application with the Colorado Public Utilities Commission requesting an increase in base electric rates to recover necessary infrastructure investment and operating costs, including pay and benefits for local employees, required to deliver safe and reliable electric service to power customer homes and businesses.  

•    Hearing Exhibit 100, BHCOE Advice Letter No. 871
•    Hearing Exhibit 100, Attachment 1-BHCOE Tariffs
•    Hearing Exhibit 100, Attachment 2-BHCOE Customer Notice

On Nov. 15, 2023, Black Hills Energy filed an amended tariff at the Colorado Public Utilities Commission. The filing was assigned Proceeding No. 23AL-0563E.  The filing amends the CSG Fixed Bill Credits for customers subscribing to Community Solar Gardens. If approved, the amended CSG Fixed Bill Credits will become effective on Jan. 1, 2024, as shown below in Appendix A.

You may view the filing documents here.

You may contact Black Hills Energy at BHESolar@blackhillscorp.com with questions or call 888-890-5554. 

On Nov. 15, 2023, Black Hills Colorado Electric filed Advice Letter No. 858 at the Colorado Public Utilities Commission.

The principal purpose of this annual filing is to amend the Company’s PCCA tariff sheets to reflect the incremental purchased capacity-related costs. The PCCA recovers the incremental cost of purchased capacity above the level of purchased capacity costs included in base rates. This PCCA filing represents the incremental purchased capacity costs for the period Jan. 1, 2016 through Dec. 31, 2023. The proposed PCCA rate is $0.00196/kWh for Residential and Energy Only Customers, $0.00165/kWh for Small General Service customers, $0.45610/kW for Large General Service customers, and $0.74256/kW for Large Power Service customers.

If permitted to go into effect on Jan. 1, 2024, the tariff revisions will result in increased annualized revenues of approximately $325,870, as compared to the 2023 PCCA rates that are currently in effect. Based on the proposed PCCA rates, the average residential customer monthly bill, under Rate Schedule RS-1 with an average usage of 600 kWh per month, will increase $0.13, from $117.45 to $117.58, or 0.11%. The average small commercial customer monthly bill, under Rate Schedule SGS-N with an average usage of 2,300 kWh per month, will increase $0.38, from $389.02 to $389.40, or 0.10%.

On Nov. 30, 2023, the company filed an advice letter with revised tariff to amend the Energy Payment Rate (Avoided Cost Rate or Average Hourly Incremental Cost of Electricity) in the Company’s Colorado P.U.C. No. 11 Tariff for Co-generation and Small Power Production Facilities. The proposed effective date is Jan. 1, 2024. The revised tariff will decrease the Energy Payment rate by 23.4% from $0.05508/kWh to $0.04217/kWh.

This tariff affects any customers serviced under the Co-generation and Small Power Production rate. The company currently has no customers serviced under this rate.

Some customers served under the Company’s net metering service are affected by the rate amendment. Net metering customers can elect to receive payment at this filed rate at the end of the calendar year for any excess generation produced from their systems that is above the amount of their energy consumption. They can also choose to roll any excess kWh over as a usage bill credit to the next calendar year rather than take the cash payment. The amendment decreases the payment that Black Hills makes to net metering customers for excess energy produced from a customer’s energy production system.

Black Hills Energy has filed to adjust its ECA rate on Oct. 1, 2024, pending approval by the Colorado Public Utilities Commission in Proceeding No. 24AL-0373E. The new rate will decrease to $0.03540 per kWh, passing along $3.5M of costs savings realized by the company to customers. The current rate is $0.03749 per kWh. The new rate will decrease a typical residential bill by $1.32, or 1.23%, and decrease a typical small commercial bill by $5.05, or 1.43%.

On November 1, 2023, Black Hills Energy filed its annual Transmission Cost Adjustment (“TCA”). The TCA is a monthly surcharge on all customers’ bills to pay for the costs of maintaining and improving the high-voltage transmission system that ensures the safe, reliable delivery of energy across our southern Colorado service territory.

The TCA is updated on an annual basis to allow Black Hills to recover construction costs incurred the previous year for projects related to our transmission towers and structures, high-voltage transmission lines, and substations — critical infrastructure necessary for carrying high-voltage electricity quickly and efficiently to the lower voltage distribution system that serves homes and businesses.

If approved, the 2024 TCA rate will be $0.008320 per kilowatt-hour (kWh). Based on this rate, the average residential customer monthly bill would see a decrease of 32 cents, going from $117.45 per month to $117.13 per month. The average small commercial customer monthly bill would see a decrease of $0.94, from $388.77 per month to $387.80 per month. The 2024 TCA rate will be in effect from Jan. 1, 2024 through Dec. 31, 2024.

On October 12, 2023, Black Hills Colorado Electric filed Advice Letter No. 854 at the Colorado Public Utilities Commission.

The principal purpose of this annual filing is to amend the Company’s Demand Side Management Cost Adjustment ("DSMCA") tariff sheet to reflect the approved budget for the 2024 Plan Year and to update the projected sales revenues.  The proposed DSMCA rate is 2.14%, a decrease of 0.01% from the existing DSMCA rate of 2.15%.  If permitted to go into effect on January 1, 2024, the tariff revisions will decrease annualized revenues by $152,468. Based on this proposed decrease, the average residential customer monthly bill, under Rate Schedule RS-1 with an average usage of 600 kWh per month, will decrease $0.01 from $118.13 to $118.12, or -0.01%. The average small commercial customer monthly bill, under Rate Schedule SGS-N with an average usage of 2,300 kWh per month, will decrease $0.05 from $391.65 to $391.60, or -0.01%.

The Company has filed an annual advice letter to calculate bill credits to customers that are derived from the amount of protected excess deferred federal income tax ("EDFIT") that was amortized during the previous year. This filing is in relation to the implementation of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act ("TCJA"). The adjustment goes into effect April 1, 2024. Customers can expect to receive bill credits during the month of April. The information below displays the one-time bill credits, by customer class, that the Company has calculated for this year's filing.

Residential: $6.97
Small General Service: $14.78
Large General Service: $377.06
Large Power Service: $12,438.02
Lighting: $14.47
Irrigation: $13.78

Black Hills has filed to amend two rates, both of which go into effect on April 10, 2024. 

First, the Company has filed the bring the Extraordinary Gas Cost Recovery Rider ("EGCRR") to an end. The purpose of the EGCRR rider was to recover costs associated with the Winter Storm Uri event that occurred in February of 2021. The Company agreed to spread the recovery of the related winter storm costs over a two-year period. April 10, 2024 marks the end of the two-year recovery period for the EGCRR rider. The volumetric rate will decrease from the current $0.00579$/kwh to $0.00000$/kwh for all applicable customer classes. 

Second, the Company has filed to increase its Black Hills Energy Affordability Program ("BHEAP") rate for all customer classes. The BHEAP rate supports a program in which low-income customers may apply to receive energy assistance on their monthly electric bills. The attached customer notice below provides an overview of the rate increase for each applicable customer class.

The net impact of the EGCRR and BHEAP amended rates will decrease an average monthly residential customer bill by $2.98 from $113.15 to $110.17 or 2.63%. The average monthly small commercial customer bill will decrease by $9.22, from $372.36 to $363.14, or 2.48%.

2024 COE Resource Adequacy Annual Report

On September 13, 2024, Black Hills Electric filed the ("EASBC") Energy Assistance System Benefit Charge to be effective on October 1, 2024.

Colorado natural gas

Tariff and regulatory documents

A tariff is a group of schedules filed with our regulatory commissions. Tariffs contain basic rates, supplemental rates or riders, and general terms and conditions for providing utility service.

More information

Filings and adjustments

On Dec. 1, 2023, the Company filed a request with the Public Utilities Commission of the State of Colorado that reflects a proposed change to the Company’s GCA rate. The proposed amendment reflects updates to the forecasted gas commodity and upstream demand costs for the period Jan. 1, 2024, through March 31, 2024, in addition to the deferred GCA costs as of September 2023. The proposed GCA tariff will affect all retail customers if the Commission allows the tariff to become effective. If approved, the amendments will become effective Jan. 1, 2024. The Commission has opened Proceeding No. 23AL-0588G for the Company’s filing. The filing documents are below for your viewing. Estimated customer bill impacts can be found on “GCA Attachment No. 7” in the “BHCG GCA Public Attachments 1-10” document below.

We’ve filed a rate review application with the Colorado Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) requesting an increase of $26.7 million in base rates to recover the necessary capital infrastructure and operational costs required to enable safe, reliable natural gas service for customers in Colorado. We’re also seeking to help protect customers from regional price spikes by introducing a Colorado state-wide natural gas cost adjustment to be implemented over a two-year period.

On July 1, 2024, the Company filed a request with the Public Utilities Commission of the State of Colorado that reflects a proposed change to the SSIR (System Safety and Integrity Rider). The proposed effective date for the revision is August 1, 2024. The advice letter requests that the Commission approve the proposed revenue increase of 0.37% and 0.30% for RA2 and RA3.  

The Commission has assigned Proceeding No. 24AL-0300G.

The filing documents are below for your viewing:

On February 29, 2024, the Company filed a request with the Public Utilities Commission of the State of Colorado that reflects a proposed change to the Company’s GCA rate. The proposed amendment reflects updates to the forecasted gas commodity and upstream demand costs for the period Jan. 1, 2024, through March 31, 2024, in addition to the deferred GCA costs as of September 2023. The proposed GCA tariff will affect all retail customers if the Commission allows the tariff to become effective. If approved, the amendments will become effective April 1, 2024. The Commission has opened Proceeding No. 24AL-0101G for the Company’s filing.

The filing documents are below for your viewing. Estimated customer bill impacts can be found on “GCA Attachment No. 7” in the “BHCG GCA Public Attachments 1-10” document below.

Black Hills has filed to amend its Black Hills Energy Affordability Program ("BHEAP") rate, effective May 26, 2024, for all natural gas customers. The Company is a proposing an increase to the fixed monthly BHEAP charge in order to provide greater assistance to income qualified customers. Pending approval from the Colorado Public Utilities Commission ("CPUC"), the rates will increase for all customer classes. The charge for a residential gas customer will increase from $0.04 to $0.30 per month, an increase to an average monthly residential bill of 0.3%. The charge for a small commercial gas customer would increase from $0.13 to $0.58, an increase to an average monthly small commercial bill of 0.2%. The attached documents below provide additional information regarding the amended BHEAP rates. This filing has been assigned proceeding number 24AL-0188G by the CPUC.

On May 31, 2024, the Company filed a request with the Public Utilities Commission of the State of Colorado that reflects a proposed change to the Company’s DSMCA rate. The proposed DSMCA tariff will affect all retail customers if the Commission allows the tariff to become effective. If approved, the amendments will become effective July 1, 2024.  The filing documents are below for your viewing.

On May 31, 2024, the Company filed a request with the Public Utilities Commission of the State of Colorado that reflects a proposed change to the Company’s GCA rate. The proposed amendment reflects updates to the forecasted gas commodity and upstream demand costs for the period April 1, 2024, through June 30, 2024.  The proposed GCA tariff will affect all retail customers if the Commission allows the tariff to become effective. If approved, the amendments will become effective July 1, 2024.  The filing documents are below for your viewing. Estimated customer bill impacts can be found on “GCA Attachment No. 7” in the “BHCG GCA Public Attachments 1-11” document below.

On August 30, 2024, the Company filed a request with the Public Utilities Commission of the State of Colorado that reflects a proposed change to the Company’s GCA rate. The proposed amendment reflects updates to the forecasted gas commodity and upstream demand costs for the period April 1, 2024, through June 30, 2024. The proposed GCA tariff will affect all retail customers if the Commission allows the tariff to become effective. If approved, the amendments will become effective October 1, 2024. The Commission has opened Proceeding No. 24AL-0374G for the Company’s filing. The filing documents are below for your viewing. Estimated customer bill impacts can be found on “GCA Attachment No. 7” in the "GCA Public Attachments 1-12” document below.

On September 13, 2024, Black Hills Energy submitted the Energy Assistance System Benefit Charge ("EASBC") to be effective October 1, 2024.