Xcel Energy 2011 Annual Report Download - page 6

Taking advantage of
investment opportunities
In addition to investing in power plants such
as Jones Station, we are taking advantage
of investment opportunities in electric
transmission and distribution as well as
natural gas infrastructure. Besides building
financial value for you, those efforts enable
us to modernize our system and ensure
reliability at a reasonable cost to customers.
Over the next five years, for example,
we will invest roughly $4 billion in our
transmission system, which includes
more than 18,000 miles and spans 10
states. Because we operate in different
transmission regions, including planning,
permitting and construction, we have
developed valuable employee expertise
and a broad industry perspective that make
us particularly efficient and effective. In
fact, on average, Xcel Energy is building
transmission at a lower cost than the
regional averages.
Because we work closely with many
stakeholders in making transmission
decisions, we’ve established solid
relationships that have resulted in satisfied
customers as well as good recovery
mechanisms across our service territory.
In 2011, we put the first segments of
major transmission projects in Minnesota,
Colorado and Texas into service. Those
projects create jobs, boost local economies
and enable us to deliver more of the
renewable energy that our customers want.
In Colorado, our plan to meet the state’s
Clean Air-Clean Jobs Act requirements
represents another investment opportunity
with many benefits. Over the next few
years, we plan to retire older coal-fired
units, add modern emission controls to
newer coal-fired units, build new natural
gas plants and switch other facilities from
coal to natural gas. The effort will give us
a diverse and balanced energy portfolio in
Colorado, one that enables us to capture
the advantages of coal, natural gas and
renewable generation technologies. It will
dramatically reduce emissions and allow
us to meet current and anticipated federal
environmental regulations cost effectively
while we upgrade our system.
Retiring and repowering Colorado
generating facilities is possible in part
because we brought our Comanche 3
coal-fired unit on line in 2010 at an excellent
price for customers. The Comanche 3
project, which resulted in significant
emission reductions at the plant site while
more than doubling the plant’s capacity,
gave us the reliable foundation we needed
to balance and reduce emissions from the
rest of our Colorado generating portfolio.
It’s an excellent example of the far-sighted
measures we’ve taken that put us in a
strong environmental position.
Ahead of the
environmental curve
Xcel Energy is an environmental leader,
and we plan to keep it that way. Our
environmental strategy works for customers
and communities because it’s balanced
and reasonably priced. It works for you
because of the investment opportunities
it has created.
Because we’ve been proactive about efforts
such as reducing emissions and adding
renewable energy sources, we are ahead
of many state and federal environmental
rules. That gives us flexibility to pursue
environmental initiatives that maintain
the value of our environmental leadership
position while truly benefiting customers.
Xcel Energy’s
Scharmin Williams
(right) worked with
Metropolitan Council
Environmental
Services’ (MCES)
Brad Gehring at
a waste water
treatment plant
in St. Paul on
process efficiency
improvements.
The efforts included
retrofitting lighting in
the plant’s five miles
of underground
tunnels. Overall,
MCES achieved a
15 percent reduction
in energy, saving
$2.5 million annually.
“I’m proud we’re
making such an
impact on our
carbon footprint
and that we’re
going to continue
this effort with a
more aggressive
goal as we go
into the future,”
Gehring said.
XCEL ENERGY 2011฀ANNUAL฀REPORT฀•฀4