PUC Approves Xcel Energy Rate Hike

ST. PAUL (AP) - Xcel Energy Inc. has won another rate increase from Minnesota regulators.

The state Public Utilities Commission on Thursday approved the Minneapolis-based utility's request for a 4.6 percent interim rate hike increase in January, the sixth rate hike in eight years.

The action comes just a month after regulators finalized Xcel's 2013 rate hike, a 3.8 percent increase that was significantly less than what the company had sought.

The PUC unanimously approved the temporary rate hike, rejecting a request from the state attorney general's office for no interim rate hike.

Before 2006, Xcel Energy's customers in Minnesota went 12 years without seeing their rates go up.