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Minnesota pilot to automatically credit bills in high-energy-burden neighborhoods approved by PUC; reaches 17,000 premises
Summary
Minnesota's Xcel Energy will automatically issue bill credits to premises in census block groups whose electric energy burden exceeds 4%, following a petition approved by the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission. The pilot eliminates individual applications and aims to reach households currently missed by LIHEAP and utility assistance programs.
The Minnesota Public Utilities Commission approved a pilot to automatically deliver bill-assistance credits to all premises in selected census block groups, Shuba Harris of Fresh Energy said at a PUC energy equity convening.
"We developed a pilot program that eliminates the need for customers to go through an application process and using available maps and census data, automatically delivers energy assistance to certain high energy-burden customers," Shuba Harris, equitable energy policy consultant at Fresh Energy, said during her presentation.
What the pilot does: the program identifies census block groups with elevated electric energy burdens and calculates a per-premise bill credit sized to reduce each identified area's electric energy burden to about 4%. Xcel Energy estimated the pilot will reach about 17,000 premises across more than 60 census block groups and cost roughly $5,000,000 per year, according to Harris. The company expects to begin issuing credits in the first quarter of the year after regulatory approval.
Why it matters: Harris said traditional assistance programs such as LIHEAP reach far fewer eligible households than the need warrants; in some targeted census block groups the presenters showed, only about 15.7% of premises received any energy assistance despite very low median incomes (one example cited a block group with median household income of $18,358).
Design, funding and opt-out: the pilot requires no application and is funded from ratepayer funds, Harris said, noting the commission directed the utility to perform a robust evaluation. The commission approved an opt-out for households that do not wish to receive the credit or believe they should not be included. Harris also said some pushback focused on ineligible higher‑income people who live inside low‑income census blocks; the project team accepted that trade‑off to reach more people who are currently unserved.
Next steps and evaluation: the PUC ordered a formal evaluation to measure whether the pilot reaches intended households and reduces arrears and disconnections. Harris said the pilot design was developed through an equity stakeholder advisory group (eSAG) convened under a Minnesota PUC order and that the petition was filed in February 2024 and approved late last year.
