Xcel Energy Colorado in 2026: retail credits, a TOU clock, and a sizing trap

Written by the Solar Learning Lab research deskUpdated August 24, 20269 min read

Xcel's Colorado solar rules are favorable enough to make a good rooftop system work. They are also easy to oversimplify. Excess production earns a time-matched dollar credit at the total energy rate, not a flat wholesale export price. But the homeowner still has to choose between a bank that follows the account and an annual settlement at a different value. Then the rate clock matters: the expensive residential window is 5 p.m. to 9 p.m., after most solar production has fallen off.

15.046238¢

EIA 2024 bundled residential average price per kWh for Public Service Company of Colorado

21.277¢

Summer RE-TOU base on-peak rate per kWh, before riders and the monthly service charge

$157M

Annual rate increase approved August 20, 2026, effective August 29

For a Denver or Aurora home, the right target is usually a system that attacks the home's actual annual use without building a giant bank of credits. A sales design that treats all exported kWh as interchangeable is not modeling Xcel's rules. It is taking a shortcut with your money.

Sources: EIA Table 6, 2024 utility bundled residential sales; Colorado PUC time-of-use rates; and Colorado PUC August 2026 rate-case action.

Check the current Xcel rate materials

The tariff summary is the document an installer should date-stamp before turning it into a savings projection.

Open Xcel rate books

Denver and Aurora fit. Colorado Springs and Fort Collins do not.

The utility behind this guide is Public Service Company of Colorado, doing business as Xcel Energy in Colorado. Xcel's Colorado communities sheet lists Denver, Aurora, Boulder, Lakewood, Arvada, Westminster, Thornton, Commerce City, Centennial, Littleton, Longmont, Lafayette, Louisville, Superior, Greeley, and many other communities. That makes this the right utility context for our Denver and Aurora solar pages.

Do not drag this rulebook south to Colorado Springs. Colorado Springs Utilities delivers electricity to the Pikes Peak region. Do not use it for City of Fort Collins electric customers either: Fort Collins Light and Power says it serves the city's homes and businesses. Xcel's statewide roster also prints the Fort Collins label, but the available extraction did not preserve the gas-only, electricity-only, or both-service legend. The city utility's electric-service statement controls the call for homes inside Fort Collins.

Sources: Xcel Colorado communities-served sheet; Colorado Springs Utilities; and Fort Collins Light and Power.

The rate is a clock, not one number

The clean statewide benchmark is 15.046238 cents per kWh. That is the EIA's 2024 bundled residential average for Public Service Company of Colorado, across 1,365,053 residential customers, 9,826,647 MWh of sales, and $1,478,540.7 thousand of revenue. It is useful context. It is not the rate line an individual Xcel solar bill follows.

Colorado's PUC says RE-TOU became the default residential structure on November 1, 2025. Every residential customer may opt out to a flat rate, but the PUC's current page does not provide the flat per-kWh price, and the current Xcel summary was not readable as a tariff document in the research for this guide. We will not invent it.

Season and period	Hours	2026 base energy rate
Summer on-peak, June through September	5 p.m. to 9 p.m. on non-holiday weekdays	21.277¢ / kWh
Summer off-peak, June through September	All other hours	7.884¢ / kWh
Non-summer on-peak, October through May	5 p.m. to 9 p.m. on non-holiday weekdays	18.331¢ / kWh
Non-summer off-peak, October through May	All other hours	6.792¢ / kWh

Source: Colorado PUC time-of-use rate page. These are base rates, not all-in bill rates. They exclude tariff riders and the monthly service charge.

Solar naturally produces most during the cheap side of this schedule, while family demand often climbs in the evening window. That does not make panels a bad fit. It means a proposal must use interval-aware assumptions, especially if it claims a battery will solve the gap. Ask which rate periods the model used and whether it accounted for the actual load shape. If the answer is a single blended rate, keep pushing.

Sources: EIA Table 6, 2024; Colorado PUC time-of-use rate page; and Xcel rate books.

Retail credits are strong. A stranded credit bank is not.

Xcel's solar FAQ says excess generation is valued at the prevailing total energy rate for the same time period: base energy plus the per-kWh riders. The resulting dollar credit offsets current bill-period charges, except for the Service and Facilities charge, and a remaining balance enters the Rollover Bank. So no, the utility is not simply buying your exports at a bargain-bin avoided-cost price during the rollover period.

The decision comes after that. The Continuous Rollover Credits election carries dollar credits from month to month and year to year in a Solar Bank with no expiration while service continues. The catch is harsh and should be in any sales conversation: the credit cannot be cashed out, transferred to another Xcel account, or handed to a new homeowner. Moving or ending service wipes it out.

The default Waive Decision works differently. Excess kWh roll through the year, then Xcel pays remaining Solar Bank energy at the previous 12 months' average hourly incremental cost of electricity, or AHIC. The research behind this page did not locate a current AHIC figure. A historical number is not a current offer, so there is none printed here. You may make a one-time move to Continuous Rollover, and Xcel says the request must arrive by December 1 to apply in the current year.

Sources: Xcel Colorado solar net-metering FAQ and Xcel existing-customer FAQ.

Solar*Rewards is a REC contract, not the price of interconnection

Basic interconnection and net metering do not depend on joining Solar*Rewards. Xcel explicitly allows a PV system to connect through the non-incentivized distributed-generation option. Solar*Rewards is a separate arrangement where Xcel pays the PV-system owner for renewable energy certificates, measured by the production meter. Those payments are monthly checks, not bill credits, and they cannot be assigned to another recipient.

For the Small Customer-Owned product, the customer receives 10 years of REC payments under a 20-year contract while Xcel owns the RECs for all 20 years. Small Third Party and Medium products are described with 20-year REC payment periods. Read the reservation letter and REC Purchase Contract, not an old marketing flyer: the FAQ says the payment rate is the rate in those documents. It includes a 0.5 cent per-kWh example, but that example is not a current standard offer.

Source: Xcel new-customer Solar*Rewards FAQ.

How to size a system in Denver or Aurora

Start with 12 months of usage, then make the design earn every extra panel. Xcel's Solar*Rewards FAQ applies a 120% annual output screen against the preceding 12 months of use. If the household has less than a year of history, Xcel averages the available months with a four-month minimum; otherwise it uses a New Homes Usage Table. That is a Solar*Rewards condition, not a blanket statement about every distributed-generation application.

The older May 2022 DER portal guide uses a different screen: expected generation, combined with other distributed generation at the address, must not exceed 200% of historical or expected consumption from the previous 12 months. Those are distinct documents with distinct scopes. Do not let anyone quietly swap the 200% general-guide language for the 120% Solar*Rewards screen, or vice versa, without identifying which program the application uses.

Here is the practical operator read. The safest design starts near consumption, leaves room only for a documented load change such as electrification, and avoids a forecast built on credits you may never use. A slightly undersized system can be the better financial decision when it trims the bill while avoiding a persistent bank. Battery economics deserve their own interval model because the key load window arrives after solar output does, and because Xcel values excess generation by the time period in which it occurs.

Sources: Xcel new-customer Solar*Rewards FAQ; Xcel DER portal guide, May 2022; and Xcel solar net-metering FAQ.

The interconnection price list exists. Its freshness does not.

Xcel directs applicants to the Interconnection Application Portal. Its available fee-and-timeline guide is dated May 2022, so treat the table below as Xcel's published guide terms, not a promise that a 2026 application will match them dollar for dollar. The research did not find a newer primary confirmation.

Published portal-guide item	Amount or standard
Engineering Process Fee, PV at or below 10 kW AC	$100
Engineering Process Fee, above 10 through 250 kW AC	$1,000
Engineering Process Fee, above 250 kW through 2 MW AC	$2,000
Small Solar*Rewards deposit, at or below 25 kW DC	$250, refundable if completed in time
Medium Solar*Rewards deposit, 25.01 through 500 kW DC	$1,500, refundable if completed in time
Supplemental review	$200, due within 15 business days
Incomplete application withdrawal	18 months

On its published sequence, Xcel lists manual evaluation within 3 business days, program review within 2 business days after the required fees, and completeness review within 10 business days. The engineering screen is listed at 10 business days for systems at or below 10 kW DC and 15 business days for systems 10 kW DC and larger. Deeper studies run longer: 30 business days for feasibility and system impact, 45 business days for facilities, or no more than 90 business days for a combined Level 3 study after authorization. Study fees and final timing vary.

Once the customer and installer have signed, the guide says Xcel countersigns within 2 business days. The meter technician then attempts meter work within 20 business days after the Solar Team initiates the request, with a PTO email a few days after completed meter work. Do not turn the system on early: Xcel says net-metering billing starts only after the net meter is installed and the customer is placed on the PV rate.

Sources: Xcel DER Interconnection Portal Process Guide, May 2022 and Xcel new-customer Solar*Rewards FAQ.

The August 2026 rate decision raises the value of a clean model

On August 20, 2026, the Colorado PUC approved a $157 million annual electric-rate increase in Proceeding 25AL-0494E. Xcel had initially requested $356 million, so the approved figure was a 56% reduction from the request. The Commission said residential bills would increase 4.77%, or $5.00 per month, effective August 29, 2026. The final written decision was due the following week when the announcement was issued.

Rate pressure does not give an installer permission to run a rosy escalation curve and call it analysis. It does mean an August 2026 proposal should declare whether it uses rates before or after the new outcome takes effect. A model that cannot name its bill baseline cannot tell you a reliable payback period.

There is no primary-source support in the research for a pending or approved solar-only Grid Use Charge from the 2024 Phase II case, the 2025 TOU proceeding, or this general rate case. The $7.10 residential Service and Facilities charge approved in the 2024 Phase II decision was a residential charge, not a solar-only fee. We do not treat that older amount as a confirmed current tariff value.

Sources: Colorado PUC August 2026 rate-case action; 2024 Colorado Phase II electric-rate decision; and Colorado PUC electric-rate cases.

Xcel Colorado solar questions, answered

Does Xcel Energy Colorado still provide retail-rate net metering?

Yes, but say it accurately. Xcel multiplies excess generation by the prevailing total energy rate, including the base energy rate and per-kWh riders, in the same time period when the excess was generated. The dollar credit can offset current bill-period charges other than the Service and Facilities charge. Any balance moves to the Rollover Bank. That is materially different from an avoided-cost export rate, but it does not make every item on the bill disappear. Source: Xcel Colorado solar net-metering FAQ.

Should I elect continuous rollover credits or the annual cash-out?

It depends on whether the project is designed to keep a modest, useful bank or to overproduce. Continuous Rollover turns excess into dollar credits that carry forward while the account remains open, but they cannot be cashed out, moved to a new account, or transferred to a buyer. The default Waive Decision rolls excess kWh through the year, then settles the remaining bank at the prior 12 months' average hourly incremental cost of electricity. Xcel says the move to Continuous Rollover is one-time and must be requested by December 1 for the current year. Sources: Xcel existing-customer FAQ and Xcel solar net-metering FAQ.

Is Solar*Rewards required to connect a rooftop system?

No. Xcel says a system can interconnect under its non-incentivized distributed-generation solar option. Solar*Rewards is the separate program in which Xcel pays the system owner for renewable energy certificates based on production-meter readings. A Small Customer-Owned participant receives 10 years of REC payments under a 20-year contract, and Xcel owns the RECs for the full contract term. The current residential payment rate and whether a specific enrollment block is open were not published in the primary material reviewed for this guide. Source: Xcel new-customer Solar*Rewards FAQ.

How long does Xcel interconnection take?

There is no published current queue-average number to promise a homeowner. Xcel's May 2022 process guide instead gives stage deadlines: manual evaluation within 3 business days, program review within 2 business days after required fees, completeness review within 10 business days, and an engineering screen within 10 business days for systems at or below 10 kW DC or 15 business days for larger systems. After signatures, Xcel says it countersigns within 2 business days; meter work is attempted within 20 business days after the Solar Team initiates the request. These are published guide terms, not a fresh 2026 completion guarantee. Source: Xcel DER Interconnection Portal Process Guide, May 2022.

What we could not verify

As of August 24, 2026, this research did not establish a current Xcel flat-rate cents-per-kWh figure, the current monthly Service and Facilities charge, a current AHIC settlement value, a current standard residential Solar*Rewards REC price, or whether a specific residential Solar*Rewards enrollment block is open. It also did not locate a current residential DER queue length, average completion time, geographic wait-time metric, or a program-wide residential capacity cap. The available interconnection fee and timeline guide is dated May 2022. Those are real gaps, not invitations to fill a page with a stale number.

Sources: Xcel rate books; Xcel new-customer Solar*Rewards FAQ; Xcel solar net-metering FAQ; and Xcel DER portal guide, May 2022.

Run a Colorado solar estimate

Use a current bill and the home's actual annual use. The only savings number worth trusting is one that shows the assumptions behind it.

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Read Xcel's solar rules before you sign

The utility's FAQ spells out the rollover choices and the parts of the bill a solar credit cannot offset.

Open Xcel solar FAQ