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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.

On November 15, 2022, Black Hills Energy filed an amended tariff at the Colorado Public Utilities Commission.  The filing was assigned Proceeding No. 22AL-0508E.  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 January 1, 2023, 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 November 15, 2022, Black Hills Colorado Electric filed Advice Letter No. 836 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 January 1, 2016 through December 31, 2022. The proposed PCCA rate is $0.00175/kWh for Residential and Energy Only Customers, $0.00149/kWh for Small General Service customers, $0.41431/kW for Large General Service customers, and $0.63463/kW for Large Power Service customers.

If permitted to go into effect on January 1, 2023, the tariff revisions will result in increased annualized revenues of approximately $346,777, as compared to the 2022 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 $0.19, from $121.83 to $122.02, or 0.16%. The average small commercial customer monthly bill, under Rate Schedule SGS-N with an average usage of 2,300 kWh per month, will increase $0.46, from $406.08 to $406.54, or 0.11%.

On November 30, 2021, 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 January 1, 2022. The revised tariff will increase the Energy Payment rate by 31.6% from $0.02757/kWh to $0.03326/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 increases the payment that Black Hills makes to net metering customers for excess energy produced from a customer’s energy production system.

 

 

 

On November 15, 2021, Black Hills Energy filed amended tariffs at the Colorado Public Utilities Commission.  The filing was assigned Proceeding No. 21AL-0540E.  The filing amends the CSG Fixed Bill Credits for customers subscribing to Community Solar Gardens effective on January 1, 2022.  The amended CSG Fixed Bill Credits are shown below.  

Class Subclass Current CSG Fixed Bill Credit per kWh Proposed 2022 CSG Fixed Bill Credit
per kWh		 $ Difference Percent Change
Residential Regular $0.1181  $0.1180 -$0.0001 -0.08%
Residential Other $0.0937 $0.0921 -$0.0016 -1.71%
Small General Service Non-Demand $0.1207 $0.1200 -$0.0007 -0.58%
Small General Service Demand $0.0954  $0.0942 -$0.0012 -1.26%
Large General Service Demand  $0.0832  $0.0827 -$0.0005 -0.60%
Large General Service Primary $0.0803  $0.0802 -$0.0001 -0.12%
Large Power Service Secondary $0.0640  $0.0610 -$0.0030 -4.69%
Large Power Service Primary $0.0668  $0.0644 -$0.0024 -3.59%
Large Power Service Transmission $0.0738  $0.0816 $0.0078 10.57%
Irrigation Pumping $0.1054  $0.1065 $0.0011 1.04%

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

What you need to know about the annual Transmission Cost Adjustment (TCA)

On November 1, 2021, 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.

The 2022 TCA rate will be $0.005072 per kilowatt-hour (kWh). Based on this rate, the average residential customer monthly bill would see an increase of 89 cents, going from $104.78 per month to $105.67 per month. The average small commercial customer monthly bill would see an increase of $3.42, from $341.48 per month to $344.90 per month. The 2022 TCA rate will be in effect from Jan. 1, 2022 through Dec. 31, 2022.

Black Hills Energy has filed to adjust its ECA rate on October 1, 2022, pending approval by the Colorado Public Utilities Commission in Proceeding No. 22AL-0380E. The new rate will decrease to $0.06044 per kWh, passing along $2.6M of savings from the company to customers. The current rate is $0.06088 per kWh. The new rate will decrease a typical residential bill by $0.27, or 0.23%, and decrease a typical small commercial bill by $1.06, or 0.26%.

You may view the filing documents here:

The Company has filed amended tariff in First Revised Tariff Sheet No. 63 and Twelfth Revised Tariff Sheet No. 65.  The amended tariff, if approved, will allow for recovery of future costs in the ECA – starting in Second Quarter 2023 – for Black Hills’ participation in an energy imbalance market (“SPP WEIS”).

In January 2022, the Company along with Public Service Company of Colorado and Platte River Power Authority (together, “the JDA Partners”) announced their intent to join SPP WEIS, an energy imbalance market, on April 1, 2023. Currently, the Joint Dispatching Agreement (“JDA”) allows for real time energy imbalance transactions between the JDA Partners.  After April 1, 2023, the JDA will end and SPP WEIS will be the operative market for real time energy imbalance transactions.

Advice Letter 831 does not request to change rates.  There is no revenue effect or bill impact at this time. Instead, the amended tariff sheets, if approved, will allow the Company to pass along, to customers, the future costs and benefits of participating in the SPP WEIS.

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 November 1, 2022, 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.

The 2022 TCA rate will be $0.006361 per kilowatt-hour (kWh). Based on this rate, the average residential customer monthly bill would see an increase of 81 cents, going from $121.58 per month to $122.39 per month. The average small commercial customer monthly bill would see an increase of $3.12, from $405.79 per month to $408.91 per month. The 2022 TCA rate will be in effect from Jan. 1, 2023 through Dec. 31, 2023."
 

On October 7, 2022, the Company filed a request with the Public Utilities Commission of the State of Colorado that reflects a proposed increase all the Company’s rate schedules.  The proposed effective date for the revisions is November 7, 2022.  The revised tariff sheets will affect the following rate schedules:

  • Rate Schedule FTS - Firm Transportation Service;
  • Rate Schedule ITS - Interruptible Transportation Service;
  • Rate Schedule NNS – Firm No-Notice Storage Service;
  • Rate Schedule APAL – Interruptible Automatic Park and Loan Service; and
  • Rate Schedule MCS – Interruptible Market Center Services.

If permitted to go into effect on November 7, 2022, the tariff revision will increase annual revenues of the Company by approximately $12,302,874.  The Commission has opened Proceeding No. 22AL-0426G for the Company’s filing.  The filing documents are below for your viewing.

On November 1, 2022 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 January 1, 2023.  The advice letter requests that the Commission approve the proposed increase of 1.59% and 0.61% for RA2 and RA3. 

The Commission has assigned Proceeding No. 22AL-0487G.

The filing documents are below for your viewing:

On November 1, 2022, the Company filed a request with the Public Utilities Commission of the State of Colorado that reflects a proposed change to the Revenue Adjustment Mechanism (“RAM”) Firm Transportation Service (“FTS”) rate and No-Notice Storage (“NNS”) rate. The proposed effective date for the revision is January 1, 2023. The advice letter requests that the Commission approve the proposed decrease to the RAM-FTS credit from ($0.8279) to ($0.7324) per Dth of Maximum Daily Transportation Quantity (MDTQ”) per monthly billing period. The advice letter also requests the Commission approve the proposed increase to the RAM-NNS credit from ($1.8779) to ($1.8899) per Dth of Maximum Daily Withdrawal Quantity (“MDWQ”) per monthly billing period.

The Commission has assigned Proceeding No. 22AL-0481G for the Company’s filing. The filing documents are below for your viewing.

 

 

 

On November 1, 2022, the Company filed a request with the Public Utilities Commission of the State of Colorado that reflects a proposed change to the SSIR affecting Shippers taking service under Rate Schedules Firm Transportation Service (“FTS”).  The proposed effective date for the revision is January 1, 2023.  The advice letter requests that the Commission approve the proposed decrease to SSIR rates from $6.0872 to $4.7362 per Dth of Maximum Daily Transportation Quantity (MDTQ”) per monthly billing period.
The Commission has assigned Proceeding No. 22AL-0482G for the Company’s filing.

The filing documents are below for your viewing

On October 14, 2022, 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 November 1, 2022 – October 31, 2023, in addition to the deferred GCA costs as of August 31, 2022. 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 November 1, 2022. The Commission has opened Proceeding No. 22L-0440G 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 1-13” document below.

PUBLIC COMMENT HEARING FOR BLACK HILLS COLORADO GAS, INC ON FEBRUARY COLD WEATHER EVENT.

The Public Utilities Commission is conducting a virtual public hearing open to customers on September 22, 2021, regarding Black Hills Energy’s costs incurred during the February 2021 extreme weather event. For more information, see https://puc.colorado.gov/puccalendar
 

On January 12, 2022, the Company filed a request with the Public Utilities Commission of the State of Colorado to update its line extension tariffs.  The purpose of this filing is to establish an equivalent line extension policy among all of the Company’s service territories and determine the appropriate construction allowance for new gas service customers.  The construction allowance is the portion borne by the Company of the upfront costs of connecting a typical new customer to the Company’s system. The Commission has opened Proceeding No. 22AL-0026G for the Company’s filing.  The filing documents are below for your viewing.  Rates for existing customers are not impacted by these proposed changes to the Construction Allowance.  

Black Hills Energy (“BH Colorado Gas” or “Company”) 7060 Alegre Street Fountain, Colorado 80817, has filed with the Public Utilities Commission of the State of Colorado (“Commission”), in accordance with the Public Utilities Law, an advice letter for permission to change rates through the Demand Side Management Cost Adjustment (“DSMCA”) to become effective on July 1, 2022. The purpose of this filing is to recover the costs associated with the Company’s demand-side management programs as well as the earned Lost Revenue component of the rate pursuant to the Commission’s rules. The revised rates will affect all customers subject to the DSMCA if the Commission allows the rate adjustment to become effective.