In a Jan. 15 letter to customers, Xcel Energy said it submitted a natural gas rate proposal to the Colorado Public Utilities Commission that will increase an average residential customer’s monthly bill about 11.4 percent, or $7.59, starting in October 2026.

Excel Energy said the requested rate increase reflects the critical investments it made during the past two years. Those investments were made to:

• Provide reliability to avoid outages.
• Strengthen system safety to protect communities and the environment.
• Offer a cost-effective energy solution to help keep customer bills as low as possible.
• Reduce emissions for cleaner air and a healthier Colorado.