Xcel Energy 2014 Annual Report Download - page 11
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Xcel Energy
Annual Report 2014 9
Improve utility performance
Improving the performance of our operating
companies is a key element of our plan. We want to
improve our ability to earn our authorized return on
equity (ROE) in each operating company, cutting in
half the gap between earned and authorized returns.
It’s an aggressive goal, but we are on a path to
realize it.
One of the most effective ways to improve ROE is to
establish longer-term regulatory agreements, which
would provide price certainty for customers and give
us greater leeway to implement projects, respond to
regulation and reduce risk.
Changing a regulatory compact takes time and
concerted effort but we’re making progress. In
Colorado, regulators approved a three-year rate
plan, renewing a long-term agreement we’d
already established and demonstrating that a
long-term approach is sustainable when we work
constructively with stakeholders. In Texas, we
proposed legislation that would allow us to recover
costs more quickly, which then enables us to make
further investments in our system.
In Minnesota, where the desire for change is
perhaps the greatest, we worked collaboratively
with a group of energy companies, environmental
policy groups and others to propose a better way
to align the energy policies our customers want
with the rates and recovery needed to make
those policies possible. Xcel Energy followed
up on the group’s recommendations—called
the e21 Initiative—with a roadmap for advancing
the e21 vision that we led with regulators.
Achieve operational excellence
Achieving operational excellence, another element
of our plan, is an increasingly challenging goal that
we recognize requires new tools and approaches
in a competitive environment. As a result, we’ve
launched a major effort focused on leveraging
technology to improve our processes and change
the way we work.