Minnesota orders Xcel to explain billing spike after missing solar credits and $6,500 in late fees

The State of Minnesota launched an investigation into Xcel Energy after the utility's billing system broke down.

After complaints described missing solar credits, surprise balances, and thousands of dollars in late fees, regulators began examining whether the problems were isolated mistakes or part of a pattern.

Cities and businesses say the billing errors led to delayed payments, extra staff work, and public money lost in the process, according to the Minnesota Reformer.

Here's what to know

Complaints that had been rising since 2022 prompted the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission to open its investigation. 

Xcel serves about 1.5 million customers in Minnesota.

Regulators said the volume and persistence of the problems justified continued scrutiny, and they directed Xcel to explain what drove the increase, what steps it was taking to fix the errors, and how it would prevent similar problems from happening again.

"This alarming trend indicates that urgent action is needed to identify the causes of this significant increase in billing errors and determine how to bring billing error complaints back to acceptable levels," the commissioners wrote.

They further ordered the utility to keep submitting monthly counts of both new and ongoing billing issues until further notice.

Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison's office noted that the troubles appeared to continue even after the investigation began, adding that the number of residential electric invoices voided because of billing problems rose by more than 50% from 2023 to 2026.

More background

One complaint came from Todd Turfler, owner of Rebel Ink Printing in St. Paul. 

He told regulators that although he said he was informed his rooftop solar system qualified for production payments, his business still had not received any in 2026. 

"The inaccuracies in billing have completely undermined the financial viability of … commercial solar investment since we are receiving no credit for any solar energy generated," Turfler told the Reformer.

In Roseville, City Manager Patrick Trudgeon said a municipal property spent eight months in 2024 and 2025 without receiving either an electric bill or monthly solar credits. When a bill finally arrived in April 2025, it totaled $15,000. 

The gap "caused issues in annual reporting for city electricity usage," he added. 

Roseville's complaint said billing problems created dozens of hours of additional staff work, and that it avoided late fees only through "staff checking each week for new incoming bills," according to Trudgeon.

St. Louis Park reported a comparable experience. 

Administrative Services Director Cheyenne Brodeen told the commission that Xcel said the city had accumulated more than $6,500 in late fees over a 12-month span. 

Brodeen also said the city lost $16,000 in 2023 because it was not informed in time that it could move to a lower-priced renewable energy subscription program before enrollment closed.

What's being done?

Xcel does not believe an independent audit is necessary. Spokesperson Megan Boldt told the Reformer in an email that the company has made progress on its billing problems. 

"We have taken these issues seriously and have made significant progress improving our billing processes, reducing backlogs and addressing the underlying issues that contributed to errors," Boldt wrote. 

"We are not suggesting our work is done … but we do not see systemic issues warranting a third-party investigation."

The utility pointed to its own data to argue conditions are improving, saying the number of residential customer invoices canceled for "controllable factors" dropped from 7,098 in July to 4,812 in August, the lowest monthly level in more than two years. 

The company also asserted that an internal review found that most of the nearly 600 accounts affected by Solar*Rewards "non-payments" in 2025 were ineligible, vacant, or affected by factors beyond its control.

Ellison's office sees it differently. 

In a filing, the attorney general argued that Xcel may be defining billing errors too narrowly and, as a result, undercounting how widespread the problem really is.

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