XCEL’S $1.3 BIL TO CUT COLO COAL

Xcel Energy to Spend $1.3B to Reduce Emissions
August 16, 2010 (Environmental Leader)

"Xcel Energy has proposed a plan that will significantly reduce Colorado coal-fired generation emissions by retiring, repowering or retrofitting several of its power plants as called for under the recently enacted state Clean Air Clean Jobs Act. The total costs, if approved by the Colorado Public Utilities Commission (CPUC), will cost $1.3 billion over the next 12 years.

"…[Xcel] expects that its proposal will save approximately $225 million when compared to the traditional approach of retrofitting all of these plants with emissions controls…[The] savings compared to an all-controls approach would be more than $950 million if federal regulation sets a price on carbon dioxide emissions."

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"The proposal calls for the retirement of…coal generation at its Valmont [by 2017]…and Cherokee [by 2022]… power plants…[Cherokee and Arapahoe unit four] would be repowered with natural gas generation…The plan also includes emission control retrofits at the coal-fired Pawnee…and Hayden…plants."

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"Xcel’s plan is in response to a state law passed last spring…[It] would reduce emissions of nitrogen oxides from the targeted plants by 75 percent at the end 2017, and by 89 percent at the end of 2022…sulfur dioxide emissions by 84 percent and mercury emissions by 85 percent…by 2023. The plan also allows Xcel Energy to meet Colorado’s statewide carbon dioxide reduction goal of 20 percent before the 2020 target.

"The proposed plan is expected to increase future electricity bills on average by 1 percent annually over the next ten years, which is less than the company’s original estimate of four to six percent…Xcel is on track to reduce carbon-dioxide emissions 15 percent by 2020 from 2005 levels. The company has reduced its CO2 emissions by more than 11 percent from 2003 levels."