The Public Service Commission will be holding a formal hearing on how Xcel Energy will be handling its savings from the recent federal tax cut.
Xcel proposes a $9.6 million refund to electric customers in North Dakota. That's the amount it won't have to pay in 2018. But Commissioner Julie Fedorchak said there’s more to Xcel’s plan.
"Xcel also proposed letting the company keep that amount in its rates for 2019 and 2020," Fedorchak said. "That's the piece we have talked a lot about."
Fedorchak said that's why the PSC decided on a formal hearing.
"It will give the company an opportunity to come and justify why it needs to keep that money," Fedorchak said.
Xcel has said allowing it to keep the money that would have been paid at the higher tax rate for 2019 and 2020 would freeze its electric rates, so it wouldn’t be asking for any increase until 2021.
