Xcel Energy 2009 Annual Report Download - page 59

As a portfolio of regulated utilities, Xcel Energy has an obligation to serve its customers by providing them with
reasonably priced, reliable electric and gas services. However, Xcel Energy’s strategy goes beyond this traditional mission.
Under the environmental leadership strategy, Xcel Energy takes prudent, balanced steps to reduce the impact of our
operations on the environment while promoting technological and public policy advancements that will encourage a
cleaner electric system. In light of the capital-intensive nature of our business, including the long life of Xcel Energy’s
capital investments, Xcel Energy takes prudent steps to reduce the overall risk associated with potential new
environmental mandates. Finally, Xcel Energy seeks to reduce regulatory uncertainty through favorable cost-recovery for
environmental initiatives provided by public policy makers, including legislatures and public utilities commissions.
The foundation for Xcel Energy’s environmental leadership strategy resides with its environmental policy. Under this
policy, the Xcel Energy Board of Directors, acting through the Nuclear, Environmental and Safety Committee,
establishes environmental performance goals and oversees Xcel Energy’s environmental compliance program and policy
initiatives. The policy is available on our website at www.xcelenergy.com. Xcel Energy has created an environmental
management system that provides employees with training and documentation of Xcel Energy’s compliance
responsibilities, creates processes designed to minimize the risk of noncompliance and audits Xcel Energy’s
environmental performance. Environmental performance goals, which include the goal of carbon reduction, are
incorporated into officer and employee job responsibilities and compensation.
Current Initiatives
Xcel Energy pursues environmental leadership through management of environmental policy initiatives. Xcel Energy
actively evaluates public policy proposals and promotes environmental initiatives that are designed to assure compliance
with state initiatives, appropriately manage long-term customer costs and, where appropriate, provide growth
opportunities. These initiatives include the following:
• Xcel Energy is the nation’s largest utility wind energy provider and the nation’s fifth largest solar energy provider.
Xcel Energy is pursuing new wind, solar and other renewable energy acquisitions and investments to meet some
of the nation’s most aggressive RESs in the states in which Xcel Energy operates. These standards provide for
favorable cost-recovery mechanisms and investment opportunities in order to allow Xcel Energy to meet the
requirements.
• Xcel Energy has implemented voluntary emission reduction programs in Minnesota and Colorado. These
programs have resulted or will result in substantial emission reductions from existing facilities. They also
incorporate enhanced cost-recovery mechanisms that allow for a construction work in process return and an
incentive based ROE mechanism.
• Xcel Energy plans to construct one of the largest biomass generating plants in the Midwest. Xcel Energy has
proposed installing technology at the Bay Front Generating Station in Ashland, Wis. to allow it to generate
electricity from biomass in all three operating units. Xcel Energy currently has 67 MW of biomass generating
capacity in Minnesota and Wisconsin.
• Xcel Energy has a number of environmental initiatives focused on our customers. Xcel Energy has the largest
customer-driven wind program in the nation called WindSource. In Colorado, Minnesota and New Mexico,
Xcel Energy manages a growing customer-sited solar program, known as Solar*Rewards. Xcel Energy also has an
increasing portfolio of customer energy efficiency and conservation programs. Xcel Energy is allowed financial
performance incentives associated with our programs in Minnesota and Colorado.
• Xcel Energy is also working to apply intelligence to its electric grid, creating a smart grid, to provide customers
with more choice, reliability and control over their energy use. Xcel Energy has completed the nation’s first fully
integrated SmartGridCity in Boulder, Colo.
• Xcel Energy is a leader in promoting new clean energy technologies for the future. Pursuant to state statute,
NSP-Minnesota manages a renewable development fund derived from customer renewable energy charges in
Minnesota that allows it to promote renewable technology advancement. Xcel Energy has also initiated a study
to improve wind forecasting for the industry, allowing for better integration of wind energy, and has undertaken
small-scale projects to study the technical and economic aspects of energy storage and the use of hydrogen.
• Xcel Energy is a leader in supporting the advancement of solar energy technology, and has announced plans to
acquire significant solar resources in Colorado, including advanced solar technology with thermal storage. Xcel
Energy was a founding member of the Solar Technology Acceleration Center in Colorado, which is focused on
advancing solar technology in its final stages of development.
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