Minnesota, Colorado, Wisconsin, Michigan, North Dakota, South Dakota, Texas, New Mexico · State commissions for each operating company, including the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission (MPUC) and the Colorado Public Utilities Commission

Auditing Xcel Energy commercial bills

Eight states through Northern States Power Company (Minnesota and Wisconsin), Public Service Company of Colorado and Southwestern Public Service.

Xcel Energy bills commercial customers through four operating companies, each with its own tariff book, schedule codes and state regulator. A portfolio with stores in the Twin Cities and Denver deals with Northern States Power in Minnesota and Public Service Company of Colorado, under completely different schedule names. The schedules below are from Northern States Power Minnesota, where Xcel uses alphanumeric codes such as A10 for small general service and A14 for general service. Minnesota does not have retail choice, so Xcel bills supply and delivery together, with fuel and resource adjustments that change monthly. General service accounts with large demand are moved to a time-of-day schedule under tariff rules. Xcel also offers peak-controlled service options that discount demand in exchange for curtailment, and those options carry penalties when a site fails to curtail. For multi-site operators, schedule fit, demand values and accounts at closed sites drive most Xcel findings.

Practice notes

Start every Xcel audit by sorting accounts by operating company. Schedule codes like A14 apply only in NSP Minnesota, and Public Service Company of Colorado uses a separate set of commercial schedules under Colorado PUC rules. Matching each account to the correct tariff book is the first check, and the most common source of confusion for AP teams.

Review peak-controlled service enrollments before each control season. Sites that enrolled years ago may have changed operations and can no longer curtail, which turns the discount into penalty exposure. That is not a billing error, but penalties calculated on the wrong demand or on days without a control event are recoverable.

Check transfers to time-of-day service against the tariff's demand test. An account moved after a short period of high demand may not meet the 4 of 12 months requirement. We rebuild the history from 15-minute interval data and request a correction, with a rebill of the affected months, where the transfer was premature.

Back-billing and refunds

Each Xcel Energy operating company follows the billing adjustment rules of its state commission and the general rules in its tariff book. In Minnesota, the Public Utilities Commission's rules and Northern States Power's tariff set how bills are corrected after meter errors and billing mistakes and the period an adjustment can cover. Other states apply their own limits. We apply the rule for each account's state and file claims promptly so the oldest periods stay inside the window.

Findings we see most often

Wrong rate schedule
Accounts moved to time-of-day service on an incorrect demand history, or left on A14 when A10 would cost less.
Demand ratchet errors
Billed demand that does not match 15-minute interval data after a meter exchange.
Closed and vacant site billing
Customer and demand charges continuing at closed locations in multi-state portfolios.
Estimated reads never trued up
Estimated reads during winter access problems, followed by true-ups spread across the wrong periods.

Commercial schedules we check

Schedule	Applies to	What we check
A10Small General Service (NSP Minnesota)	Non-residential accounts with small loads that are not demand-billed.	Confirm small sites are not on a demand-billed schedule they do not need, and check customer charges on accounts with more than one meter.
A14General Service (NSP Minnesota)	Non-residential accounts that are not required to take time-of-day service, at secondary or primary voltage.	Rebuild billed demand from 15-minute interval data and confirm the voltage level billed matches the service.
A15General Time of Day Service (NSP Minnesota)	Non-residential accounts that elect time-of-day pricing, and A14 accounts transferred after measured demand reaches 1,000 kW or more in at least 4 of the past 12 months.	Check on-peak demand and energy periods against interval data, and confirm the transfer from A14 was triggered by the correct demand history.

Schedule names and eligibility summarized from the utility's published tariff. The utility's current tariff book governs.

Xcel Energy questions

They are issued by different Xcel operating companies under separate tariffs and state rules.

Yes. We compare penalties with control event records and interval data and file where the calculation is wrong.

Yes. We audit gas accounts against the gas tariff for each operating company.

Audit your Xcel Energy accounts.

Connect bills for up to 50 meters. Get the findings report in about three weeks. Pay nothing unless money comes back.

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from bill access to first findings report: 21 daysfrom bill access to first findings report
of filed claims accepted by the utility in full or in part: 94%of filed claims accepted by the utility in full or in part