Xcel expects to cut off service to 72,000 in 2008

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Denver Business Journal - by Cathy Proctor
Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Xcel Energy Inc. said Wednesday it’s shutting off power and heat to an average 1,000 residential customers every week in Colorado for nonpayment of bills and expects to disconnect 72,000 customers in 2008 — a 33 percent increase over 2007.

The number of customers disconnected for nonpayment of bills is an indication of how they’re coping with higher energy bills and a rocky economy. Uncollected bills eventually are rolled into the rates paid by all customers.

During the first six months of 2008, Xcel said it shut off service to 36,000 customers, up 33 percent from the 27,000 customers shut off during the first half of 2007.

Yet 85 percent of the 36,000 Xcel customers disconnected during the first half of 2008 had service restored by paying all or a portion of the total amount they owed the utility. About 80 percent of those who were reconnected paid the full amount they owed, said Xcel spokesman Tom Henley.

http://www.bizjournals.com/denver/stories/2008/07/14/daily40.html

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1. utility bills

I guess we now know what happened to those huge stimulus checks.