Xcel once again proves they need some competition, too bad the government prevents that from ever happening

DENVER - Xcel Energy spokesperson Tom Henley says in the future customers may see an increase on their bill to pay for repairs to the substation that exploded Monday, citing it as part of the operational costs.

http://www.9news.com/news/article.aspx?storyid=140726&catid=339

This explosion provides yet another excuse for Xcel to raise rates. If it were not for the government providing Xcel with a monopoly then this would probably not be an issue, because Xcel could not just raise rates when their equipment malfunctions, not if they had competition whose equipment didn't malfunction and would have no need to raise rates. Most companies factor into the cost of doing business the replacement of equipment and so do not need to raise rates when this happens.

 Xcel is telling customers not to use as much electricity while this gets fixed. Imagine if your phone company said “we had a telephone switch go down, so don't make any calls during daylight hours for the next two months and we are going to raise your rates as well to cover the cost of the new switch. Would you stay with that company? Probably not, because now that the government no longer enforces a monopoly on phone service, you have a choice. Too bad you still do not have a choice when it comes to electricity.