For the past decade, Xcel Energy shareholders consistently voiced their approval for how the Midwestern and Western utility company compensates top executives.
They cast affirmative votes for multimillion-dollar pay packages for Xcel CEO Bob Frenzel and other officers.
Now, on Xcel’s home turf in Minnesota, some utility customers have taken a less favorable view of executive pay packages — at least the share they have to pay — following a series of electric rate increases in recent years.
In 2023, the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission voted to deny much of Xcel’s petition to recover millions of dollars in executive pay from ratepayers as part of a rate proceeding. Xcel has filed for another electric rate increase of $490 million, or 13.2 percent, over the next two years.
