ReportWire

Tag: rate hike

  • Xcel Energy customers react to proposal to increase bills by nearly 10% in 2026

    [ad_1]

    COMMERCE CITY, Colo. — Denver7 is listening to the community after Xcel Energy announced Friday it wants to increase electric rates in Colorado by nearly 10% in 2026.

    Commerce City resident Lucy Molina told Denver7 its going to force some families to make difficult choices.

    “Do I pay my electric bill, or do I eat?” said Molina.

    Denver7

    Pictured: Lucy Molina speaking with Denver7’s Claire Lavezzorio in her Commerce City home.

    Robert Kenney, President of Xcel Energy Colorado told Denver7 Friday that the increase is to recover investments in safety and reliability like transmission, distribution and generating facilities the company has made over the past 3 years.

    The average residential customer would see their bill increase $9.94 per month if their bill is around $100. The average large commercial customer will see a $14.22 increase per month or 9.48%.

    Kenney said the company hasn’t requested a major rate hike from its customers since 2022.

    Back in 2022, Denver7 covered unprecedented complaints from Xcel customers about price increases.

    Now that a new hike is being proposed, Molina said every expense matters for people in her situation.

    “For people with fixed incomes, every dollar counts. Every penny counts for us, right?” she said.

    Xcel Energy worker

    Denver7

    Xcel Energy employee working on a power line.

    Ean Thomas Tafoya with Green Latinos, a group that advocates for customers, said the rate increase would disproportionately affect those who can least afford it.

    “Certainly, energy affordability is a conversation that’s happening everywhere,” Tafoya said. “The first thought I had was what kind of income qualified programs exist because the sort of thing that we have advocated for at the Public Utilities Commission?”

    Xcel told Denver7 the company will be expanding energy assistance programs alongside this rate increase.

    “We’re taking steps to enhance our energy assistance programs for our customers that need the help the most, and so we are going to be increasing our percent of income payment plan program to gain more customers into that program,” said Kenney. “We’re going to be increasing our targeted support for energy burden seniors, whereby they will receive a reduction of up to $20 a month.”

    However, customers like Molina worry that some families will still fall through the cracks.

    “Why do we have to pay the burden of their costs or their upgrades?” Molina said. “I want to say, when is it enough? You know, when is it enough?…is what I want to ask the president of Xcel.”

    Xcel filed the rate change request with the Colorado Public Utilities Commission on Friday.

    It will undergo a review and public comment process with the PUC and, if passed, could take effect in August of next year.

    Coloradans making a difference | Denver7 featured videos

    Denver7 is committed to making a difference in our community by standing up for what’s right, listening, lending a helping hand and following through on promises. See that work in action, in the videos above.

    [ad_2]

    Claire Lavezzorio

    Source link

  • Duke Energy proposes 15% rate hike over two-years for reliability, growth needs

    [ad_1]

    According to recent News & Observer reports, Duke Energy’s influence sprawls across North Carolina politics, ranging from political donations through the company’s corporate political action committee to spending $903,800 lobbying legislators last year, making it one of the largest political donors in the state.

    According to recent News & Observer reports, Duke Energy’s influence sprawls across North Carolina politics, ranging from political donations through the company’s corporate political action committee to spending $903,800 lobbying legislators last year, making it one of the largest political donors in the state.


    Observer file photo

    Another rate increase may be coming to Duke Energy customers if its new proposal is approved.

    The company filed revised rate requests with the North Carolina Utilities Commission Thursday for both Duke Energy Carolinas and Duke Energy Progress customers. Duke Energy Carolinas covers the western half of the state, including Charlotte. Progress operates in the eastern half, including the Triangle region. Both companies serve parts of South Carolina.

    Both groups of customers would experience about a 15% increase between 2027 and 2028. If approved, the customer increases would go into effect Jan. 1, 2027, with a second increase the following year.

    For Duke Energy Carolinas customers, the monthly bill would increase by $17.22 in 2027 and again by $6.34 in 2028. In the first year, that would take average bills from $144.98 to $162.20.

    For Duke Energy Progress customers, bills would increase by $23.11 in 2027 and $6.59 in 2028. That would take the monthly bill in the first year from $163.84 to $186.95.

    Commercial and industrial customers would also experience rate increases.

    The Charlotte-based company is looking for an annual revenue increase of $1 billion for Duke Energy Carolinas and $729 million for Duke Energy Progress. Both represent about a 15% increase over existing revenues.

    The proposal needs to go before the state utilities commission, which would late schedule public hearings on the request. Those hearings would occur in the spring. The decision would be made in late 2026.

    Duke Energy’s proposed plan

    The last time Duke Energy requested a rate revision was in 2023. That affected customers’ bills up until this year.

    Since then, Duke Energy said it has improved its “self-healing technology,” which detects outages and reroutes power. As of October, the tech has saved almost 2.6 million hours of total outage time, according to the utility.

    Duke Energy says its newly proposed rate hikes would increase reliability. It also helps power the growing state, which the utility notes includes new businesses that are mainly manufacturing facilities.

    From 2027 to 2028, commercial customers for Duke Energy Carolinas will see increases of 8.7% and 3.9%. Industrial customers will see 6.3% and 3.4%. On the Progress side, commercial hikes will be about 9.2% and 4.6%. Industrial will be around 7.4% and 4.3%.

    The utility said residential customer costs reflect what residents use. Large industrial and commercial customers may use more energy, but the demand more predictable, the utility said.

    But residential customers are growing as well. The utility added around 150,000 customers in the last two years, according to Duke Energy.

    To increase reliability, Duke Energy is focusing on grid upgrades, such as the self-healing technology and upgraded poles.

    Duke Energy notes it’ll add new energy sources to its fleet, including the natural gas facilities in Person and Catawba Counties as well as the two proposed natural gas-powered generators in Rowan County.

    There’s also the $1.7 billion in battery storage projects the utility proposed in its biennial resource plan it filed in October.

    Previous Duke Energy promises of low rates

    The proposed rate hike doesn’t align with what Duke Energy has been discussing in other recent proposals.

    In the biennial plan, Duke Energy said a customer would see a 2.1% annual increase over the coming decade, according to the plan.

    And in Duke Energy’s announcement of the merger between Duke Energy Carolinas and Duke Energy Progress, the utility vowed to save customers more than $1 billion through 2038.

    Duke Energy said the proposed rate hike and the proposed resource plan address different needs. The resource plan didn’t factor in grid improvements the way the rate hike plan does.

    And with the merger, the utility said the estimated savings are on a gradual scale. It wouldn’t go into effect until the merger is official, which wouldn’t happen until Jan. 1, 2027, if approved.

    That’s also the reason why the rate hikes are separated between the two companies. If the rate hike is approved, along with the merger, this would be the last separated increase, the utility said.

    Ways to save on energy bill

    Duke Energy has several cost saving tools for income-qualified customers.

    Weatherization involves installing energy conservation measures in a customer’s home. On an annual average, weatherization has saved customers $150.34 per home.

    Smart $aver offers home improvements rebates for efficiency upgrades, including water heaters and insulation. That has saved customers $125.22 per home on average per year.

    Other bill management tools or financial assistance services can be found online at duke-energy.com/help or duke-energy.com/BillHelp.

    This story was originally published November 20, 2025 at 4:39 PM.

    Related Stories from Charlotte Observer

    Desiree Mathurin

    The Charlotte Observer

    Desiree Mathurin covers growth and development for The Charlotte Observer. The native New Yorker returned to the East Coast after covering neighborhood news in Denver at Denverite and Colorado Public Radio. She’s also reported on high school sports at Newsday and southern-regional news for AP. Desiree is exploring Charlotte and the Carolinas, and is looking forward to taking readers along for the ride. Send tips and coffee shop recommendations.

    [ad_2]

    Desiree Mathurin

    Source link

  • S&P 500 pushes above 4,010 level, stocks turn higher after Fed raises rates by 25 basis points

    S&P 500 pushes above 4,010 level, stocks turn higher after Fed raises rates by 25 basis points

    [ad_1]

    U.S. stocks turned higher, shaking off earlier weakness, after the Federal Reserve on Wednesday raised its policy rate as expected by 25 basis points to help fight inflation. The increase in interest rates comes despite recent weakness in the banking system after the collapse earlier in March of Silicon Valley Bank. The S&P 500 index
    SPX,
    -0.55%
    was up 14 points, or 0.4%, to about 4,016, at last check, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average
    DJIA,
    -0.68%
    was up 0.2% near 32,609 and the Nasdaq Composite Index was 0.7% higher. The Fed also said the U.S. banking system remains resilient, in its policy statement. The 10-year Treasury rate
    TMUBMUSD10Y,
    3.507%
    was lower at 3.52%.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • RBI may hike repo rate by 25 bps

    RBI may hike repo rate by 25 bps

    [ad_1]

    A majority of the financial sector experts expect the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) to settle for a moderate repo rate hike of 25 basis points in its policy review meeting this week. .

    .

    The MPC will start its three-day deliberations on the next set of monetary policy on Monday and the decision will be announced on February 8.

    Reserve Bank of India Governor Shaktikanta Das, in his last bi-monthly monetary policy statement on December 7, had underscored that: “Core inflation is exhibiting stickiness. While headline inflation may ease through the rest of the year and Q1 (April-June):2023-24, it is expected to rule above the target. On balance, the MPC was of the view that further calibrated monetary policy action is warranted to keep inflation expectations anchored, break core inflation persistence and contain second round effects. ”

    Referring to the aforementioned statement, experts are of the view that MPC may go for one more rate hike to ensure that inflation remains within the target (4 per cent +/- 2 per cent).

    However, some are of the view that MPC may press the pause button. They cited the latest retail inflation and IIP readings to buttress their case.

    Bank of Baroda’s economists, in a report, said: “Going ahead, the overall liquidity situation needs to be tracked as surpluses have dwindled to a near neutral state. The RBI policy will be watched in this regard.

    “The MPC would persist with another rate hike to bring the repo rate to 6.5 per cent for this cycle before a pause.”

    The MPC has hiked repo rate (the interest rate at which banks draw funds from RBI to overcome short-term liquidity mismatches) cumulatively by 225 basis points (from 4 per cent to 6.25 per cent) in FY23 so far.

    The MPC last hiked the repo rate by 35 basis points from 5.90 per cent to 6.25 per cent on December 7 th. Prior to that (on September 30, 2022), the committee had raised the repo rate by 50 basis points, from 5.40 per cent to 5.90 per cent..

    Kotak Securities, in a report, said that the global inflation environment is gradually turning benign although inflation is still well above every central bank’s target. Inflation will likely moderate further in the next few months, leading to the end of the rate hiking cycle by first half of Calendar Year (CY) 23 and possible rate cuts in late-2023/early-2024.

    “However, given large global uncertainties, central banks’ levers for supporting growth through monetary easing remain limited, thereby risking higher rates for an extended period.

    “We expect the RBI MPC to hike policy rate by 25 bps to 6.5 per cent, followed by a prolonged wait-and-watch approach, as it assesses the lagged impact of monetary tightening on growth and inflation,” the report said.

    Pause at the next meeting?

    Pankaj Pathak, Fund Manager- Fixed Income, Quantum AMC, observed that inflation has come down substantially over the last three months and is showing further downward momentum. External conditions have also eased with slower rate hikes in the US.

    RBI’s foreign exchange reserves have also increased over the last few months.

    Given these developments, MPC is expected to pause the rate hiking cycle in the February meeting and will maintain the repo rate at 6.25 per cent for an extended period, emphasised Pathak.

    “It might also change the policy stance to Neutral (from the current ‘withdrawal of accommodation’ stance). Bond market should react positively. We expect bond yields to go down gradually though elevated bond supply will limit the downside of yields,” he said.

    [ad_2]

    BL Mumbai Bureau

    Source link