Xcel Energy Inc. is providing more training for its service workers after North Dakota customers and state regulators complained about billing problems, a consultant says.

The utility has about 46,000 natural gas customers in North Dakota, mostly in Fargo, West Fargo and Grand Forks. It hired a consulting firm to conduct an independent review of its billing procedures after the state's Public Service Commission was swamped with complaints last winter. Most came from natural gas customers who did not understand their bills or believed they were too high, state regulators said.

"Quite frankly, being here since January, I've heard nothing but billing problems out of Xcel, and it's got to stop," said newly elected Public Service Commissioner Brian Kalk.

Craig Andrews, president of Global Enterprise Managers Inc., a Pennsylvania consulting firm, said during a meeting with the Public Service Commission and Xcel executives on Thursday that the utility had taken longer than it should to detect the North Dakota billing woes.

At the time, Andrews said, Xcel had "serious problems" with its customer service because of turnover and a lack of training. The company has since stepped up its employee training, he said.

"There is now a more experienced baseline set of people to respond to (complaints)," Andrews said. "So you're less likely to get these, 'I don't know,' or, worse yet, giving bad information out."

Michael Gersack, an Xcel managing director, said the problem has attracted attention from top executives at the Minneapolis-based utility that provides electricity and natural gas to customers in North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota and five other states.

"We've put in a number of detection techniques in place to catch things sooner if something is broken and not working in the field, and to get it fixed sooner," Gersack said.

More than 4,000 customers were affected when thousands of newly installed meter-readers - meant to allow the meters to be read remotely, without a visit from an Xcel worker - became clogged with ice last winter.

As a result, customers were not billed for some winter gas use. After Xcel discovered the problem, customers received estimated bills that they believed were too high.

Kalk and Commissioners Tony Clark and Kevin Cramer said they also heard complaints from residents of Thompson, a rural Grand Forks County community, after Xcel estimated some residents' winter gas bills. On some occasions, the winter weather was too severe to allow meter readers to visit in person, company officials said.