I would vote a resounding yes for a publicly owned energy company

I live in Evergreen. Our power lines are underground. Whenever my electric (along with 6 others neighbors) goes out my neighbors' 4 houses up the street from me have power. For some reason we are on a different grid? In November our electric was turned off due to Xcel update/repairs. Obviously, these repairs and updates did not factor into our electric being shut off in December.

December rolls around and the following:

We are advised of a potential power outage.

Dec 17 - power turned off for a few hours and then comes back on.

Dec 18- late MORNING power goes off and does not come back on until Dec 21 12:30 pm.

Receive my Xcel bill. I checked my usage -

I am being incorrectly charged for a full day on the 18th, including prime hours (after 5pm)???

I am being incorrectly charged for the 19th

I am being incorrectly charged for the full day on the 21st.

When talking to Xcel they say the meter shows I had electric during these times - I was stuck at home without a car (in the shop that had no electric) during this entire time and had absolutely no power. They tried to tell me that maybe I had partial power somehow????? How is that possible? Nothing was on in my home or in my neighbors' homes - we were in constant communication. I questioned the Xcel representative - if my new meter is somehow transmitting the wrong data how much have I been paying them extra each month? They will send someone to check my meter but as of now I doubt very much that I can get a refund for the power I did not have but was charged for; they are sticking by their meter readings. To top all of that off, I received an email stating that due to the increase in wholesale gas our bills would now reflect this increase - what? Also, received an email about Xcel's request for price increases this coming year (as they do yearly). I am, to say the least, very disappointed and upset with Xcel and their many ways of gouging the consumer while making record profits.